‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 87: As millions around the world rally for peace, an Israeli minister calls for ethnic cleansing

Casualties:

• 21,978 killed* and at least 56,697 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
• At least 316 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem

*This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on January 1. Due to breakdowns in communication networks within the Gaza Strip, the Ministry of Health in Gaza has been unable to regularly and accurately update its tolls since mid-November. Some rights groups put the death toll number closer to 30,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.

Key Developments

• Palestinians entered 2024 with demonstrations in the occupied West Bank calling for an end to the Israeli carnage in Gaza, as thousands throughout the world joined a call for a ceasefire as the clock struck 12. 
• As some countries canceled New Year’s Eve celebrations, others, like Turkey, saw mass gatherings in solidarity with Palestine. Activists in the U.S. are calling for a national week of action.
• Israeli forces continued to bombard Gaza in the final hours of 2023, killing 156 Palestinians in the span of 24 hours.
• Meanwhile, Palestinian armed groups launched a barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv and its surroundings at midnight, “in response to the massacres of civilians.” 
• Far-right Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich calls for more than 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants to be forcibly displaced after the war, as former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair denies reports that he was tapped to mediate efforts to send Palestinians to Western countries. 
• Meanwhile, fellow Israeli settler and minister Itamar Ben-Gvir complains that the Israel Prison Service, already accused of beating, torturing, and mistreating Palestinian prisoners, had not complied with his orders to starve prisoners allegedly involved in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. 
• The Israeli army pulls out five brigades from combat in Gaza in alleged strategic decision, as army officials say the war could continue long into 2024.
• Israeli media reports that Israeli officials are very worried that the ICJ might find Tel Aviv guilty of genocide.
• The Israeli army detains at least 32 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank overnight.
• The U.S. Navy kills 10 Ansar Allah fighters in the Red Sea, as Iran sends warship to the key maritime area.

In a solemn new year, people around the world call for peace

The world ushered in the new year with calls for peace, as demonstrators from New Zealand to Hawaii participated in the Countdown2Ceasefire campaign for a ceasefire in Gaza.

A number of countries canceled or minimized New Year’s Eve celebrations in solidarity with Palestinians, as bombs continue to fall on the Gaza Strip nearly three months on since October 7.

Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, holding banners with the names of thousands killed by Israeli forces in Gaza and calling for national unity.

In Beirut, protesters marched to support Palestinians and the south of Lebanon on Sunday night, which has been pummelled by Israeli shelling and white phosphorus for months. The Turkish city of Istanbul saw large numbers pour into the streets in solidarity with Palestine on Monday morning.

A number of rights groups in the United States meanwhile began a national week of action on January 1st, calling for “a new year without Israeli genocide in Gaza.” 

In his traditional New Year address, Pope Francis called for prayer for people suffering in war, including Palestinians. “May those with a stake in these conflicts listen to the voice of their conscience,” he said.

The Palestinian Authority meanwhile ended the year by stating there could be “no peace or stability without a complete end of the Israeli occupation” of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

Perhaps most poignantly, Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza Wael Dahdouh, whose wife, children, and colleagues have been killed by Israeli forces as he himself has been injured, called for Palestinians in Gaza to be able to rebuild their lives in 2024.

“I don’t know what can be said in such moments as we are on the verge of concluding 2023 – this year, with all its tragedies, horrors, and heavy burdens on the shoulders of the Palestinian people,” he said in a video shared on social media. “On such occasions, one hesitates to speak, but despite everything, we must unleash our wishes for this year to be one of goodness and blessing, a year of safety and security, a year of peace and tranquility, a year of dignity and victory.”

No respite for Gaza

The occasion did not signify a pause in violence in Gaza, as Israeli air strikes continued unabated between Sunday and Monday.

WAFA news agency reported that deadly Israeli strikes hit Gaza City, al-Maghazi refugee camp, Nuseirat refugee camp, Deir al-Balah, Rafah, Khan Younis, and Abasan al-Kabira on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reported on Monday that Israeli forces heavily bombarded al-Bureij refugee camp and Deir al-Balah overnight, including with barrel bombs

The Gaza Ministry of Health reported at midday on Monday that Israeli strikes had killed 156 Palestinians and wounded 246 more in the span of 24 hours, raising the total official death toll to 21,978.

Armed Palestinian groups meanwhile reported fighting with Israeli ground troops in the areas of Gaza City, Shujaiyya, Khan Younis, al-Shati, Bureij, and Beit Lahia. The Israeli army claimed on Monday to have killed Hamas commander Adil Mismah, who allegedly led Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7. Hamas has yet to confirm or deny the news.

Palestinian armed groups fired a barrage of rockets towards the Gaza envelope, Tel Aviv, and its surroundings at midnight “in response to the massacres of civilians.” There were no reports of casualties.

Israeli minister calls for the ethnic cleansing of two million Palestinians in Gaza

In Israel, meanwhile, 2023 ended with mixed messages about the military’s supposed progress on the battlefield. Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Sunday that Israel was preparing for “warfare throughout this year,” and framed the decision to remove five brigades from combat as a “tactical decision” to manage troops.

Meanwhile, Israeli media reported that 30 Israeli soldiers had so far been killed by friendly fire or accidents in Gaza, amounting to 18 percent of reported military deaths since the beginning of the ground invasion. Observers believe that the death toll among Israeli soldiers may be much higher than the official toll of 170.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army has defended itself from allegations, brought up by an Israeli government minister, that air force pilots were refusing to assist ground troops in Gaza due to “conscientious concerns.”

Israeli soldiers have meanwhile complained about national media coverage. A letter by an army reservist published by The Jerusalem Post claimed that critical reporting was “weakening the spirit of the [Israeli] people, strengthening Hamas, raising the prices of this war” while misrepresenting the alleged victories on the ground.

Proof of such Israeli successes, the reservist wrote, included “infinite piles of concrete in unstable heaps mixed with the skeletons of crushed cars from tanks, shattered solar water heaters, household items scattered in ruins, not an area anyone could return to in the coming years” – undeniable signs of Israel’s indiscriminate destruction of the Gaza Strip, but not a clear indication of victory in combat against Hamas and other Palestinian groups.

ABC News reported on Sunday that the U.S. would be pulling the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier from the Eastern Mediterranean in coming days, where it had been stationed after October 7. 

The ambiguous news on the military front has not stopped Israel from continuing to push for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, with reports emerging that former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, who played a large and heavily criticized role in the Iraq War, was being tapped to take on a mediator position in seeking to relocate Palestinian refugees to Western countries. Blair has denied such reports, while the Palestinian Authority said it hoped “that Tony Blair will not be involved in committing this crime, which falls within the framework of the Israeli government’s plans to intensify genocide and forced displacement of the Palestinians.”

Far-right settler and Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called on Sunday for the vast majority of Palestinians to be expelled from Gaza, with only 200,000 – less than 10 percent of the current population of 2.3 million to remain.

“The extremist minister Smotrich’s call for his Nazi government to displace two million Palestinians and keep only about two hundred thousand in the Gaza Strip, and to transform the lands of Gaza into parks and recreational areas for the Zionists, is a flagrant disregard and a war crime that is accompanied by a criminal aggression unprecedented in modern times,” Hamas said in a statement. “Our people have spoken their word and will stand firm and steadfast in the face of all attempts to displace them from their land and homes, until liberation and return.”

Another fellow extremist settler, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, meanwhile complained on Monday that the head of the Israel Prison Service had refused to obey his orders to starve Palestinian prisoners allegedly involved in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7.

Israel has detained thousands of Palestinians since October 7, many of them workers from Gaza and Palestinians from the West Bank, and sentenced most of them to administrative detention – imprisonment without charges or trial. Palestinians who have since been released have said they were subjected to severe beatings, torture, and deprivation.

Amid these calls for ethnic cleansing and violations of human rights, South Africa’s decision last week to file a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice for genocide has reportedly rattled Israeli officials. Haaretz reported that Israeli state officials have expressed fears that “there is real danger that the court will issue an injunction calling on Israel to halt its fire, noting that Israel is bound by the court’s ruling.”

Tensions rise in the West Bank and the Red Sea

The occupied West Bank saw continued Israeli army raids between Sunday and Monday, with Israeli forces detaining at least 32 Palestinians across the occupied territory, WAFA news agency reported, including two teenagers in Salfit. Some 4,910 Palestinians have been detained since October 7, almost as many people as had been detained in Israeli prisons in total before that date.

Israeli forces shot and injured a Palestinian man during a raid in Bani Naim, near Hebron, while another was reportedly shot near the illegal Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim.

Confrontations between Israeli forces and local residents were reported in Tulkarem refugee camp and Beit Iba, in the Nablus governorate, while Palestinian resistance groups claimed several shooting attacks at Israeli checkpoints and settlements across the occupied West Bank. Israeli media did not report on any of these incidents.

Meanwhile, armed groups in the region continued to stage strikes in support of the Palestinian resistance, with the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon claiming a number of rocket attacks in northern Israel and the occupied Shebaa farms, and the Islamic Resistance in Iraq group saying it had attacked U.S. military bases as well as fired towards the occupied Golan Heights.

U.S. Navy forces shot down anti-ship missiles and three small boats allegedly carrying Ansar Allah fighters from Yemen in the Red Sea on Sunday, reportedly killing 10 fighters. Ansar Allah rebels (commonly referred to as “Houthi”) have attacked a number of cargo ships in the Red Sea in recent months in support of Palestinians in Gaza, disrupting one of the most important economic sea routes in the world. Iranian media stated on Monday that Tehran had deployed a warship into the Red Sea, in a possible escalation on the maritime front.

“[U.S.] military movements in the Red Sea to protect Israeli ships will not prevent Yemen from fulfilling its religious, ethical, and humanitarian duty in support and aid of the oppressed in Palestine and Gaza,” the Ansar Allah movement said in a statement.