Day 71 of Hamas-Israel war blog: Saturday, Dec. 16

At least one of the three Israel hostages mistakenly shot and killed by Israeli forces in Gaza was holding “a stick with a white cloth on it,” an IDF official told reporters Saturday.

Rina Bassist, Ezgi Akin, Beatrice Farhat, Elizabeth Hagedorn, Adam Lucente, Jack Dutton, Jared Szuba and Al-Monitor’s contributors on the ground in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel contributed to this blog.

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Live updates (all times EDT):

Saturday, Dec. 16, 2023

6:34 pm: Netanyahu hints at resumed Israel-Hamas talks

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to indicate that new Qatar-mediated talks were underway to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. An earlier round of negotiations ended earlier this month with the collapse of a temporary pause in fighting in exchange for the release of around 110 captives.

Speaking at a press conference Saturday, Netanyahu vowed to maintain military pressure on Hamas. 

“The instruction I am giving the negotiating team is predicated on this pressure, without which we have nothing,” he said. 

The comments came shortly after Israel’s intelligence chief, Mossad leader David Barnea, reportedly met with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Friday night in Europe to discuss the resumption of talks.

5:37 pm: Pentagon dispatches top officials as concerns grow over Israel’s conduct in Gaza war

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and top general CQ Brown are headed to Tel Aviv to press Israeli leaders on scaling down their war effort in Gaza to a more focused campaign as international pressure mounts over civilian deaths. 

Austin is expected to advise senior Israeli officials on ways to shift the campaign from wide-scale ground-clearance operations to more focused strikes against Hamas' leadership, while preparing for a postwar governance and restoration of services. Jared Szuba reports.

2:50 pm: USAID contractor, family killed in Gaza in Israeli airstrike

A contractor for the US Agency for International Development in Gaza was killed alongside his family in an Israeli airstrike in November, his employer, the nonprofit Global Communities organization, announced today.

“We are deeply saddened to confirm the tragic loss of our colleague, Hani Jnena (33), along with his family in Gaza, including his wife, Abeer (32), and their two young daughters, Mariam and Zayna, aged 4 and 2,” Global Communities said in a statement.

1:45 pm: UNRWA chief warns Gazans may 'start dying of hunger'

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini warned in an interview Saturday that Gazans could “start dying of hunger” as the war continues.

“The World Food Programme is extremely worried that we are now going into starvation. What I can tell you is I saw firsthand that people are hungry. This is something completely new in Gaza. We never saw it in previous conflicts,” he told the New Statesman.

“People are really talking about hunger. I would not be surprised if people indeed start dying of hunger, or a combination of hunger, disease, weak immunity,” Lazzarini added.

7:25 am: Israeli hostage mistakenly killed by IDF was holding white flag

 At least one of the three Israeli hostages mistakenly shot and killed by Israeli forces in Gaza was holding “a stick with a white cloth on it,” an IDF official told reporters today.

The official said that the three emerged from a building near IDF positions on Friday while troops were in the middle of “intense fighting” in the Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza City.

“A cry for help [was] heard in Hebrew,” the IDF official said, after which a military commander ordered a cease-fire, however firing continued “toward the third figure.”

The IDF said a preliminary investigation is currently underway.

6:40 am: Communications down in Gaza for second day

Internet and phone connections are down in Gaza for a second day, according to internet advocacy group NetBlocks.org.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said the outage, which began early Thursday, is obstructing aid efforts after the group lost contact with teams on the ground.

6:01 am: Israeli military raids two schools in Gaza City

Israeli forces carried out raids on two schools in Gaza City “due to information regarding Hamas terrorists that concealed themselves within schools,” the IDF said in a statement today.

Also on Friday, Israeli strikes targeted a building in the Jabalia refugee camp after the IDF noted “the movement of a number of Hamas terrorists on the roof,” the statement added.

1:10 am: Netanyahu already campaigning for next elections

Signs indicate that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might not step down after the war is over, but will rather run again for Israel’s leadership.

Families of hostages held in Gaza accuse Netanyahu of prioritizing Israel's military campaign over negotiations with Hamas. In a poll published last Friday, 70% of Israelis felt Netanyahu should resign over the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, reflecting a growing political cleavage within Israeli society. Mazal Mualem reports.

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