The BBC, Sky News, Channel 4, The Independent, The Financial Times, The Sun and The Telegraph report that the Lebanese group Hezbollah says one of its commanders has been killed in a strike in southern Lebanon believed to have been carried out by Israel. Wissam Tawil is one of the most prominent Hezbollah figures to be killed in the current violence. Israel’s military did not comment, but it did say it had hit Hezbollah targets in response to cross-border attacks.The BBC publishes a piece on Israelis living near the northern border and their worries about possible escalations. 

The BBC, The Telegraph, Sky News, and The Guardian all report that Lord David Cameron has said he is “worried” Israel may have broken international law in Gaza. The foreign secretary said he regularly consulted government lawyers over incidents in the war, but refused to say whether the legal advice suggested Israel had acted illegally. Lord Cameron stressed the government had not changed its support for Israel.

The Guardian, The Evening Standard, and Reuters report that Anthony Blinken has reaffirmed the United States’ “unique bond” with Israel, and rejected calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza but told his hosts in Tel Aviv that other regional powers have made clear that a pathway to the realisation of Palestinian political rights is essential for peace in the region. Hinting at having held difficult talks with Israeli officials on Tuesday, the US secretary of state said the exceptional friendship between the two countries demanded that the US be “as forthright as possible when the choices matter most” and called for Israel to make “hard decisions”.

Sky News reports that Israel’s president Isaac Herzog has said “there is nothing more atrocious and preposterous” than the lawsuit filed in the International Court of Justice accusing his country of genocidal actions against Palestinians in Gaza.

Gordon Brown writes for The Guardian: “The year 2024 starts in deep gloom – but with visionary leadership, building upon the 2007-08 plan, there could be light at the end of a very dark tunnel that still threatens, unless we act, to turn pitch black.”

The Guardian publishes a piece saying: “It is… troubling that while western newspapers and television stations have reported the rising numbers of deaths of journalists in Gaza, many news organisations appear unwilling to directly address the pattern of killing that, as the CPJ’s evidence appears to show, provides strong evidence of a war crime. It would surely be different if American or European reporters were the ones dying.”

The Guardian also publishes an article on right wing media inside Israel: “Since the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war, Israelis have been glued to their TV sets and scrolling through news and social media. The ordinarily news-obsessed public has become even more engrossed, and the war has seen the propagation of a point of view that for much of Israel’s media history has been marginal, but has now reached its apex: that of the settler far right.”

The Guardian reports that Labour’s Lisa Nandy has called for an urgent focus on a two-state solution to end violence in Israel and occupied Palestine, saying the international community had not done enough to seek a lasting solution to the regional conflict before the latest outbreak of war. Nandy, who was visiting Jerusalem on the day the death toll in Gaza climbed to more than 23,000, said she cried hearing about the agony of Palestinians with loved ones trapped there, but believed demanding an immediate ceasefire was not the most effective way to end the violence.

The Guardian also reports that the planet-warming emissions generated during the first two months of the war in Gaza were greater than the annual carbon footprint of more than 20 of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations, new research reveals.

The BBC reports that Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the UK says it is interested in normalising relations with Israel after the war in Gaza, but that any deal must lead to the creation of a Palestinian state. Prince Khalid bin Bandar told the BBC a pact was “close” when the the kingdom paused US-brokered talks after Hamas’s deadly attacks on Israel on 7 October.

The Times interviews former Mossad head Efraim Halevy, who says that Benjamin Netanyahu should resign as he has failed to bring Hamas to its knees and cannot unite his own country.

The Sun reports that Israeli forces said they have discovered what could be Hamas’ biggest rocket factory, hidden underground beneath a civilian evacuation road and protected by human shields. The workshops would be where terrorists were said to produce long-range missiles capable of hitting targets in northern Israel.

The Daily Mail reports that Israel’s ambassador to the UN yesterday begged its General Assembly not to forget the young women held hostage by Hamas by holding aloft the Daily Mail’s coverage. Gilad Erdan showed this newspaper’s haunting images of four bloodied and bruised teenagers, taken hours after they were kidnapped, to the delegates in New York.

The Telegraph reports that Jeremy Corbyn will join a South African government delegation at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague for the country’s forthcoming genocide case against Israel. The former Labour leader will be one of a number of “senior political figures from progressive political parties and movements across the globe” joining the delegation, Pretoria said.

All the Israeli media reports on the nine IDF casualties suffered in the Gaza Strip yesterday. Maariv reports that six of the dead were killed by IDF explosives that had been laid to destroy underground Hamas infrastructure in the Al-Boureij refugee camp in the central Strip. According to a preliminary inquiry, the explosives were accidentally triggered by an electricity pole that had been knocked over by a tank shell that was fired nearby. “The incident occurred during preparations to destroy tunnel shafts and weapons. The area was ready for detonation, in keeping with the plans that had been drafted in advance to demolish the tunnel. Most of the troops had vacated the area, leaving the Engineering Corps troops on the ground along with other troops who provided security. At that moment, the tank crew spotted an approaching enemy and relocated so as not to put the troops at risk. The tank fired at the target. The explosives in the tunnel area were detonated as soon as the shell was fired.” Yesterday’s events bring the total IDF casualties suffered since the beginning of operations in the Gaza Strip to 185.

Army Radio features news that the IDF has attacked more than 150 terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip in the past day. Troops also found at least 15 tunnel shafts, as well as rocket launchers, rockets, unmanned aerial vehicles and explosives.

Israel Hayom reports from a Hamas weapons plant found by troops in Al-Boureij. “The Hamas ‘Military Production’ plant did not operate behind fences, but right in a neighbourhood where civilians lived daily life,” it finds. “Chilling evidence of Hamas waging battle among Gaza’s population and its factories of death. The terror effort was attached to civilian society’s buildings in order to try preventing harm to its facilities, or exact so heavy a civilian toll as to compel Israel to halt the operation. This linkage between terror infrastructure and the local populace forced the IDF to operate meticulously and carefully, and the fear of terrorists remaining in shafts or explosives still detonating sometimes sends random spurts of gunfire echoing sporadically. Forces in the field still have much work ahead dismantling infrastructure so it cannot serve Hamas again. It took Hamas years to build its subterranean plants and huge workshops, including the tunnelling infrastructure connecting them. Now the fate of these facilities is to disappear in the blink of an eye.”

Yediot Ahronot’s Ari Shavit argues that “the incumbent government isn’t capable of coping with a long war. A supreme national test of the kind we are facing necessitates the right foreign policy, judicious economic policy and a responsible and creative comprehensive strategy. None of that can be achieved when extremist and delusional people are gripping the government by the throat. A protracted and bloody war needs a united and unifying national leadership that enjoys domestic legitimacy and global legitimacy, and which can act judiciously. The current leadership in Jerusalem isn’t that. It is dividing the Israelis, alienating the Americans, provoking the Palestinians and antagonizing the nations of the world. It has systematically and consistently damaged national resilience and is endangering national security. That means that in order to survive the long war and to win the long war, a political reversal is  imperative. A different government is a necessary condition for victory.”

Kan Radio reports the White House clarifying that it is not in favour of a ceasefire in Gaza, but does support humanitarian pauses. On the first day of his visit to Israel, US Secretary of State Blinken announced that an agreement was reached with Israel to have a UN delegation visit the northern Strip to study the possibility of allowing displaced Gazans to return to their homes. Blinken said, “There are a lot of really challenging and important issues to deal with, including things like unexploded ordnance, booby-traps and other explosives that have been left by Hamas.” Blinken said that the US would like to see people return to their homes once that becomes possible.

Channel 12 features details of Blinken’s meeting with hostage families in Tel Aviv last night. “He said that the Americans are working vigorously to secure another deal,” said people who attended the meeting. “He said that there’s currently a track that might produce results. In the past number of days, all of the relevant actors have been involved; there are talks.”

Haaretz quotes Blinken’s comments on potential Israeli normalisation with Saudi Arabia, a key priority of the Biden Administration prior to October 7^th. “We talked about that actually on every stop,” Blinken said, “including of course here in Saudi Arabia. And I can tell you this: There’s a clear interest here in pursuing that; there’s a clear interest in the region in pursuing that. But it will require that the conflict end in Gaza, and it will also clearly require that there be a practical pathway to a Palestinian state. This is what I heard from everyone we talked to about it. But this interest is there, it’s real, and it could be transformative.” Blinken also attacked South Africa’s case at the ICJ accusing Israeli of genocide in Gaza: “We believe… the charge of genocide is meritless. It’s particularly galling given that those attacking Israel — Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis — as well as their supporter Iran, continue to openly call for the annihilation of Israel and the mass murder of Jews.”

Channel 13 and Kan News report Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Ghassan Aliyan returning yesterday evening from Cairo where, according to security officials, meetings were held to discuss increasing the volume of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the question of the “day after” as pertains to Philadelphi Road, and the stalled talks about a hostage deal. Channel 12 adds that an Israeli delegation comprising Shin Bet and other officials is expected to visit Cairo in the coming days in a bid to advance the hostage negotiations. “Israeli officials,” the channel says, “hope to find a way to create linkage between the demand to allow [Palestinian civilians] to return to the northern Gaza Strip and freeing the hostages. An Israeli official said that the gaps between the sides remain large. Meanwhile, the Egyptians have also invited Hamas representatives to talks in Cairo.”

Haaretz reports that the High Court of Justice has ruled today that National Security Minister Ben Gvir is to be barred from giving police orders regarding their conduct during protests.