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What we know
- Israel’s Supreme Court struck down a key component of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul. The court narrowly voted to overturn a law passed in July that prevents judges from striking down government decisions they deem “unreasonable.”
- A senior Israel Defense Forces spokesman has indicated that the military offensive in Gaza could last throughout 2024, with forces preparing for "prolonged fighting."
- Tensions in the Middle East were raised yesterday when U.S. helicopters exchanged fire with Iran-backed Houthi crews in small boats in the Red Sea, after they received distress calls from a commercial containership. The U.S. helicopters sank three boats.
- Danish shipping giant Maersk announced a 48-hour pause on all transits through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
- Netanyahu has continued to push back against calls for a cease-fire in Gaza and said on Saturday that the war was expected to go on for “many more months.”
- More than 21,800 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. More than 55,000 have been injured, and thousands more are missing and presumed dead.
- Israeli military officials say at least 170 soldiers have been killed during the country's ground invasion in Gaza, which came after 1,200 people were killed and about 240 hostages were seized after Hamas launched multipronged attacks on Israel on Oct. 7.
- NBC News’ Jay Gray, Josh Lederman and Ali Arouzi are reporting from the region.
Israel’s aircraft, tanks step up strikes as it plans to reduce troops
Israeli aircraft and tanks stepped up strikes in southern Gaza overnight, residents said, after it announced plans to pull back some troops, a move the U.S. said signalled a gradual shift to lower intensity operations in the north of the enclave.
Israel says the war in Gaza, which has reduced much of the territory to rubble, killing thousands and plunging its 2.3 million people into a humanitarian disaster, has many months to go.
But it signaled a new phase in its offensive, with an Israeli official saying on Monday the military would draw down forces inside Gaza this month and shift to a months-long phase of more localised “mopping up” operations.
The Israeli official said the troop reduction would allow some reservists to return to civilian life, shoring up Israel’s war-battered economy, and free up units in case of a wider conflict in the north with Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah.
A U.S. official said the decision appeared to indicate the start of a shift to lower-intensity operations in the north of the Palestinian enclave. Washington has been urging Israel to reduce the intensity of its military operation, amidst international calls for a ceasefire as the death toll mounts.
But residents said Israeli planes and tanks stepped up bombardment of the eastern and northern areas of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
US Navy ending aircraft carrier’s Middle East deployment
WASHINGTON — The Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier will return to its home port, the U.S. Navy said on Monday, ending its deployment to the eastern Mediterranean, which started in support of Israel after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants.
The nuclear-powered Ford, the Navy’s newest carrier with over 4,000 personnel and eight squadrons of aircraft, became a powerful symbol of American support by rushing closer to Israel after the Palestinian militant group’s attack.
“Immediately following Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel, the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group was ordered to the eastern Mediterranean to contribute to our regional deterrence and defense posture,” the Navy said in a statement.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had extended the Ford’s deployment three times in hopes that its presence would deter Iran and Iran-aligned groups, particularly Lebanon’s Hezbollah, from attacking Israel. “DoD (Department of Defense) will continue to leverage its collective force posture in the region to deter any state or non-state actor from escalating this crisis beyond Gaza,” the Navy said.
Biden has a ‘domestic audience’ in Israel, important to use influence ‘wisely,’ ambassador says
The Biden administration has built a “high degree of credit” in Israel, said Ambassador Dennis Ross, former U.S. special envoy to the Middle East and an NBC News Foreign Affairs analyst.
He said that with this “credit,” the administration has been pressuring Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to lay out a “day after strategy” for what happens in Gaza after the war ends.
Hunger hits animals and people alike at Gaza zoo
GAZA — In Rafah zoo, dozens of destitute Gazans are camping between the cages where starving monkeys, parrots and lions cry out for food 12 weeks into Israel’s offensive.
Nearly all Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes under a bombardment that has reduced much of the territory to rubble. Many now cram the southern city of Rafah, their shelters packing street corners and empty lots.
In the private zoo, run by the Gomaa family, a line of plastic tents stood near the animal pens and washing hung from lines between palm trees. Nearby a worker tried to feed a weak monkey tomato slices by hand.
Four monkeys have already died and a fifth is now so weak it cannot even feed itself when food is available, zoo owner Ahmed Gomaa said. He also fears for his two lion cubs. “We feed them dry bread soaked in water just to keep them alive. The situation is tragic really.”
More Americans think foreign policy should be a top US priority for 2024, new poll finds
WASHINGTON — In this time of war overseas, more Americans think foreign policy should be a top focus for the U.S. government in 2024, with a new poll showing international concerns and immigration rising in importance with the public.
About 4 in 10 U.S. adults named foreign policy topics in an open-ended question that asked people to share up to five issues for the government to work on in the next year, according to a December poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
That’s about twice as many who mentioned the topic in the AP-NORC poll conducted last year. Long-standing economic worries still overshadow other issues. But the new poll’s findings point to increased concern about U.S. involvement overseas — 20% voiced that sentiment in the poll, versus 5% a year ago.
It also shows that the Israeli-Hamas war is feeding public anxiety. The conflict was mentioned by 5%, while almost no one cited it a year ago. The issue has dominated geopolitics since Israel declared war on Hamas in Gaza after that group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israeli soil.
Hezbollah says three of its fighters killed in southern Lebanon
Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group said on its Telegram account on Monday that three of its fighters were killed in southern Lebanon.
The statement gave no detail about how the three were killed but said they “were martyred on the road to (liberate) Jerusalem.” Security sources said they were killed in an Israeli raid on two houses in the Lebanese village of Kafr Kila near the border where Hezbollah maintains security control.
Hezbollah, an ally of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, has been exchanging near-daily fire with Israel across Lebanon’s southern frontier since the eruption of the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza in early October.
The Israeli military said on Monday it struck a series of targets in Lebanon, including “military sites” where Hezbollah was operating.
Competing Middle East loyalties at New York's Polar Bear Plunge
Participants display an Israeli and Palestinian flag during the annual New Year's Day Polar Bear Plunge at Coney Island in New York.
Biden administration was pushing for Israel troop withdrawal and new phase of operations
The IDF plan to withdraw some of its troops appears to be the beginning of moving to the next phase of operations in northern Gaza, and a U.S. official says it's a move that the Biden administration has been pushing for.
The official noted that fighting is still happening in the area and there don’t appear to be any changes happening in southern Gaza.
Israel said five of its military brigades will be withdrawing from the Gaza Strip this week, but Netanyahu has stressed that fighting would continue for months.
Israel removing some units from Gaza to prepare for long war, prevent economic damage
TEL AVIV — Israel says five of its military brigades, including many reservists, will be withdrawing from the Gaza Strip this week in an effort to pace itself for an expected long-term conflict and to mitigate damage to Israel’s economy.
The Israeli Defense Forces said the 828th Brigade, 261st Brigade and 460th Brigade, composed of active duty troops, will all return to their normal training missions. The 551st Brigade and 14th Brigade, comprising reservists, will be allowed to go home and to resume their normal jobs, the IDF said.
Yet the military took pains to signal that the withdrawal of those brigades did not signal an end to active, intensive combat in Gaza or any reduction in Israel’s mission there. Israel has been under intense global pressure to scale back the war but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a national address over the weekend that the war would continue for “many more months.”
“The goals of the war require prolonged fighting and we are preparing accordingly,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters.
Red Crescent says it established first organized camp in Khan Younis
The Red Crescent aid organization said today that it established the first organized camp for displaced people in the city of Khan Younis, Gaza’s second largest and target of recent Israeli military operations.
It's been set up with around 300 people — mostly aid workers, ambulance crews and other personnel and their families — the organization said, but there are plans to expand it to 1,000 people.
Khan Younis, in the south of Gaza, came under assault by Israeli military forces last month.
The United Nations relief agency UNRWA said in a situation report Sunday that since the Oct. 7 terror attacks against Israel and the war that followed, up to 1.9 million people in Gaza have been displaced. That number would be 85% of the population of Gaza.
