Middle East & North Africa

7 December 2023; MEMO: Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip will end with the surrender of Hamas leaders and the return of hostages, an Israeli spokesman said on Thursday, Anadolu Agency reports.

“The war in Gaza can end on the condition that Hamas leaders surrender themselves to the Israeli army and the prisoners are returned,” Ofir Gendelman, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told reporters.

8 December 2023; MEMO: Iranian judicial authorities, on Thursday, announced the seizure of two vessels over alleged smuggling of fuel in the Persian Gulf, Anadolu Agency reports.

Mojtaba Ghahrami, Chief Justice of the southern Hormozgan province, said two vessels carrying 210,000 litres of “smuggled fuel” were seized in the waters of Qeshm Island, as reported by state media.

He said Iranian naval forces seized the two ships after identifying them and took 14 people on board into custody.

7 December 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, has praised the Kingdom’s relationship and coordination with Russia as having “helped remove tensions in the Middle East”, as the two oil giants continue to advance relations and steer global oil markets.

7 December 2023; MEMO: The son of Israeli cabinet minister and former military chief, Gadi Eizenkot, was killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip, Benny Gantz, leader of the National Unity Party, said on Thursday, Reuters reports.

Party members Eizenkot and Gantz, also a former army chief, joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government shortly after Hamas’ deadly 7 October attack which prompted an Israeli air, ground and sea offensive in the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

8 December 2023; MEMO: The Al-Qassam Brigades said an Israeli soldier who had been held as a prisoner of war in Gaza was killed early today after an Israeli special forces unit struck the area he was being held, Reuters reports.

Al-Qassam identified the prisoner of war as 25-year-old Sa’ar Baruch and gave an identification number for him.

8 December 2023; MEMO: Israel has deliberately destroyed dozens of archaeological sites and ancient sites in the besieged Gaza Strip since 7 October, in a blatant attempt to target Palestinian cultural heritage.

8 December 2023; MEMO: Al-Qassam Brigades announced yesterday that its fighters had completely or partially destroyed 79 Israeli military vehicles in Gaza City over a 72-hour period.

“Our fighters have booby-trapped a tunnel entrance in the Sheikh Radwan area, and as soon as an Israeli force advanced on it, it was blown up. As a result, members of the Israeli force were killed and wounded,” the Brigades said in a statement on Telegram.

TEL AVIV, December 7. /TASS/: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the headquarters of the Israel Defense Forces Northern Command and warned that the escalation of tensions on the border with Lebanon by Hezbollah could cause Beirut and South Lebanon to repeat the fate of the Gaza Strip.

"If Hezbollah decides to open an all-out war, then with its own hands it will turn Beirut and southern Lebanon, which are not far from here, into Gaza and Khan Yunis," he said on X (formerly Twitter).

TEL AVIV, December 8. /TASS/: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) struck a number of targets on Syrian territory last night in response to the shelling launched on December 7, the army's press service reported.

"In response to yesterday's launches [of shells] toward northern Israel, the IDF struck a number of targets in Syria," the statement said.

GAZA, Dec 8 (NNN-XINHUA) – The Israeli army arrested, yesterday, dozens of Palestinians, during its incursion into the town of Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip, said Palestinian sources.

Palestinian security sources told Xinhua that, Israeli troops made the arrests during their storming of residential neighbourhoods in Beit Lahia.

Local eyewitnesses said that, the Israeli soldiers deliberately stripped the detainees of their clothes during interrogations.