EXPLAINER

A drone strike in Lebanon killed senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri – here are the latest updates.

Here’s how things stand on Wednesday, January 3, 2024:

Latest updates:

• The Israeli army has launched attacks on Syria and Lebanon. It announced on X on Tuesday that it attacked Syrian military infrastructure and Hezbollah “terrorist infrastructure”.
• A drone strike hit a Hamas office in Beirut’s Hezbollah stronghold Dahiyeh, killing six people including senior Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri on Tuesday, Lebanon’s state news agency reported.
• The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) posted on X that on Tuesday night, “Iranian-backed Houthis fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen into the Southern Red Sea.”
• While multiple commercial ships reported their impact on surrounding waters, none reported damage.
• The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting to discuss peace and security regarding the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea at 3pm New York time [20:00 GMT] on Wednesday.

#FrPrez | The Security Council will hold a meeting on the maintenance of international peace and security, in particular on the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.

🗓️ Wednesday, 3 January – 3PM
📺 UNWebTV https://t.co/Lv2W6r5o1w pic.twitter.com/cxZeSZraco

— La France à l’ONU 🇫🇷🇺🇳 (@franceonu) January 2, 2024

Human impact and fighting:

• The number of Palestinians in Gaza killed since the outbreak of violence on October 7 is now 22,185, said Gaza’s health ministry on Tuesday. At least 57, 000 have been injured.
• UN humanitarian affairs agency OCHA reported more demolitions of Palestinian structures. The latest destruction took place on Tuesday in the At-Tur neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem.

Demolition reported today in At Tur, #EastJerusalem, #WestBank, occupied #Palestinian territory

Statistics on demolition and displacement: https://t.co/hG9VUlAUXf pic.twitter.com/9pIrgzbmi3

— OCHA oPt (Palestine) (@ochaopt) January 2, 2024

Diplomacy:

• Israel has not officially responded to the killing of al-Arouri but Netanyahu’s adviser Mark Regev, told the US outlet MSNBC that Israel does not take responsibility for this attack.
• He added, “Whoever did it, it must be clear: this was not an attack on the Lebanese state.”
• “We need to avoid conflict between Israel and Lebanon,” Nicolas de Riviere, the current UN Security Council president and French UN envoy, has told Al Jazeera.
• US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller rejected statements from Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir about the resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza.
• “Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land,” said a statement published on Tuesday.
• Israel is not “another star on the American flag”, said Israeli National Security Minister Ben-Gvir after the US State Department issued the statement.
• Gaza team leader of the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, Gemma Connell, condemned the Israeli attack on the Red Crescent-run El Amal City Hospital in Khan Younis, which killed at least five people, including a five-day-old child.
• She said that “there is no safe space in Gaza, and the world should be ashamed”.
• WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus echoed Connell’s sentiments about the bombing. “Today’s bombings are unconscionable,” he said.
• In a statement released on Tuesday, Malaysia endorsed South Africa’s appeal to the International Court of Justice against Israel.
• The court hearings are scheduled for January 11 and 12 at The Hague.

Raids in the West Bank

• Israel continues its raids in several areas of the occupied West Bank.
• Israeli military vehicles are infiltrating the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem and bulldozers are destroying infrastructure, Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut reported from occupied East Jerusalem.
• They are also surrounding the Tulkarem governorate hospital and preventing the team at Al Jazeera Arabic from covering the raid.
• There is another Israeli raid on Nablus, where fierce clashes have been reported. In Qalqilya, the army is arresting multiple Palestinians, Salhut reported.
• Since October 7, 324 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, Salhut reported.