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Biden says did not ask for ceasefire in Gaza during phone call with Netanyahu

“I had a long talk with Netanyahu today [Saturday] and it was a private conversation,” Biden told reporters on Saturday.

“I did not ask for a ceasefire,” he said, in response to a shouted question.

In a statement later, the White House announced Biden and Netanyahu discussed Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, including its “objectives and phasing”.

Biden “emphasised the critical need to protect the civilian population including those supporting the humanitarian aid operation, and the importance of allowing civilians to move safely away from areas of ongoing fighting”, added the statement.

“The leaders discussed the importance of securing the release of all remaining hostages.”

The call between the two leaders came a day after the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) passed a resolution calling for the scaling up of aid for Gaza but fell short of calling for a ceasefire or a pause in weeks-long fighting.

The resolution, which demanded “immediate, safe and unhindered” deliveries of life-saving aid to Gaza “at scale”, was passed after UNSC members wrangled for days over its wording and toned down some provisions at Washington’s insistence.

The US and Russia abstained from the vote, whose impact on the ground, aid groups fear, will be close to nil.

“This resolution has been watered down to the point that its impact on the lives of civilians in Gaza will be nearly meaningless,” Avril Benoit, the executive director of Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement.

“The way Israel is prosecuting this war, with US support, is causing massive death and suffering among Palestinian civilians and is inconsistent with international norms and laws,” Benoit added.

The US also opposed the demand to create a UN monitoring mechanism for aid, assuring Israel would continue to have a role in inspecting deliveries.

Netanyahu on Saturday “expressed his appreciation” for the stance taken by the US at the UN, his office said. He also “made it clear that Israel will continue the war until all its goals are completed”.

Gaza’s Health Ministry reported the death toll since the start of the attacks rose to 20,258 on Saturday, most of them being women and children.

According to UN estimates, the war has displaced 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population.

The UN has described the situation in Gaza as “beyond catastrophic”, with residents struggling to find food, fuel and water, while living in crowded shelters or tents.

Agnes Callamard, secretary-general of Amnesty International, says the UN Security Council resolution for humanitarian relief will only result in a “drop in the ocean of suffering” in Gaza.

“There should not be hinderance to the delivery of humanitarian assistance. Israel should not have stopped the delivery of humanitarian assistance and create the conditions for making delivery impossible,” she told Al Jazeera.

“There is only one country to unlock what’s happening at the moment – the carnage, the mass-scale violations of international law. That country is the United States. People in the White House and the State Department, they hold the key to aid delivery and a ceasefire,” she added.

UN agency says “no place is safe” in Gaza as Israel calls for new areas to evacuate

“People in Gaza are people. They are not pieces on a checkerboard – many have already been displaced several times,” White, a top official in the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, wrote on the social media platform X.

“The Israeli Army just orders people to move into areas where there are ongoing airstrikes. No place is safe, nowhere to go.”

A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces has urged residents of central Gaza — including Al-Bureij camp and the areas south of Wadi Gaza, which are near Al Nusairat — to move further south, warning in a statement Friday that the IDF was working “forcefully” against Hamas.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has also statef Israel’s goals in northern Gaza are being “gradually” completed and that the focus of military operations will shift south in the future — a warning repeated by Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari on Friday.

Since renewing its offensive in Gaza after the collapse of a brief truce, Israel has been urging residents to evacuate. Given ongoing communications difficulties in the enclave, it is unclear how widely the messages have been received.

An analysis published Friday found that Israel has struck several locations in Gaza where it had ordered civilians to evacuate to since the beginning of the war in October.

White also said the UN Security Council’s resolution “falls well short of what we need here in Gaza”.

“We need a ceasefire that will stop the killing of civilians and the destruction of civilian infrastructure in Gaza, but most importantly, to enable conditions on the ground here so we can effectively deliver aid to the people of Gaza,” he told Al Jazeera.

At least 20,000 people have been killed in the besieged Gaza Strip since Israel began bombarding the enclave more than 10 weeks ago, according to Palestinian officials. At least 8,000 children and 6,200 women are among those killed, Gaza’s Government Media Office reported on Wednesday.

The war has flattened large parts of northern Gaza and driven most of the population to the southern part of the besieged territory, where many are in crowded shelters and tent camps. Some 1.9 million Palestinians – about 90 percent of Gaza’s population – have fled their homes.

The United Nations relief agency for Palestinian refugees has also called for an “immediate and humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza” while also emphasising the need for an “unimpeded flow of aid” into the besieged enclave, regardless of ongoing political negotiations.

“It is extremely tragic that politics stand in the way of 2.2 million people’s survival in Gaza,” UNRWA spokesperson Tamara al-Rifai said at a press conference.

In a post on X, UNRWA also added it “cannot deliver meaningful aid” while the Israeli bombardment of Gaza continues.

100 journalists killed since start of war: Gaza media office

Palestinian journalist Muhammed Abu Hweidy was the latest to be killed in an Israeli air raid on his home in the east of Gaza City on Saturday, the media office reported.

“The number of journalists killed has risen to 100, men and women, since the start of the brutal war on the Gaza Strip, after the martyrdom of journalist Mohammed Abu Hweidy in an Israeli airstrike in the Shujaiya neighborhood,” the office said on Telegram social media.

Palestinian officials in Gaza say the number could be much higher.

However, according to a tally by the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 69 journalists have been killed in the conflict.

More than 50 media premises or offices in Gaza have been completely or partially destroyed by Israeli attacks. Hundreds of Palestinian journalists and their families have been forcibly displaced to the south.

The media workers were also forced to abandon their reporting equipment in offices in the north to live and report under difficult condition amid frequent communication blackouts.

Journalists working in areas of armed conflict are protected under international humanitarian laws, which Israel is accused of violating repeatedly.

Palestinian journalists have said Israel is deliberately targeting them to silence their stories.

Ukrainian troops say facing acute ammunition shortage

According to a Ukrainian soldier fighting in the southern sector of the front, artillerymen are given a limited number of shells to hit a given mark, with the number they can use on a small target like a mortar position limited to just 5-7 rounds.

He added that frontline troops are “very tired,” compounding the ammunition shortage.

“They are still motivated… But you can’t win a war only on motivation. You should have some kind of a numerical advantage… It only gets worse and worse.”

The soldier’s remarks were echoed by a member of the 148th Artillery Brigade, equipped with 155mm howitzers. He told the Post that his unit was expending just 10 to 20 shells per day, down from an average of 50 and sometimes even up to 90.

“What can you do with 10 shells per day? It is barely enough to respond to their advances – we are not even talking about attacking their positions.”

At the same time, Ukrainian soldiers interviewed by the paper said that they did not see Russia suffering from a similar deficit of ammunition, as it continues its attacks in the southern and central parts of the front.

Officials in Kiev have long complained about a shell shortage, claiming that it delayed the start of their much-hyped summer counteroffensive and allowed Russia time to erect formidable defenses. Beginning in June, Ukraine attempted to breach Moscow’s lines without any notable success while losing around 160,000 troops in the process, according to Russian officials.

The ammunition shortage was also admitted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who said that the Hamas-Israel conflict had slowed down the deliveries. ABC News reported in late November, citing a Ukrainian official, that since the start of hostilities US deliveries of NATO-standard munition have gone down “by more than 30%”.

Meanwhile, the US – Kiev’s main Western backer – has had to dose the amount of aid Ukraine is receiving as Congress has so far been unable to approve President Joe Biden’s flagship supplemental request which includes some $60 billion in aid, due to Republican opposition. The GOP has been reluctant to support the move, demanding the White House do more to enhance security on the southern US border.

Gazans facing starvation: WHO chief

“Hunger is present, and famine is looming in Gaza,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X on Saturday.

Four of five households in northern Gaza and half of displaced households in the south are going days and nights without eating, said Ghebreyesus.

“This is heartbreaking. This protracted conflict is blocking much-needed access to food and other life-saving humanitarian aid,” he added.

Ghebreyesus urged the international community for immediate improvement in food security via accelerated flows of aid into Gaza to stop the famine.

The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7 has risen to 20,258, with 53,688 injuries, the Health Ministry in the blockaded enclave said on Saturday.

In a statement, the ministry added 201 more people were killed and 368 others injured over the past 24 hours.

Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7.

Iran summons Russia charge d’affairs over Moscow stance on trio PG islands row

Iranian Foreign Ministry

The assistant director general of the Persian Gulf Department of Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday summoned the Russian chargé d’affaires in Tehran in the absence of the country’s ambassador.

During the summoning, Tehran’s strong protest was conveyed to him over Moscow’s repeated support for the baseless claims made in a statement issued by the 6th conference of the Arab-Russian Cooperation Forum in Morocco.

In the meeting, the assistant director general of the Persian Gulf Department of Iran’s Foreign Ministry reminded the Russian diplomat of the necessity of respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of countries as a recognized and basic principle of relations among world nations.

The Foreign Ministry official reaffirmed Iran’s eternal sovereignty over the three Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf and stressed that the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran rejects any claim from any side in this regard as unacceptable.

The Russian chargé d’affaires stressed that he will convey the Islamic Republic of Iran’s protest quickly to his country’s officials.

Iranian MP slams Russia on three Persian Gulf islands 

Persian Gulf

Fada Hossein Maleki added that Russia would throw Iran under the bus if it’s necessary, adding that Tehran needs to have strategic ties with Moscow but it should avoid relying solely on the Russians.

Maleki said Russia made similar moves with regard to the Iran 2015 nuclear deal, JCPOA, although it later supported Tehran on other occasions to redress their mistakes.

The Iranian MP said it would be a political and strategic mistake for Russia to give the green light to the Persian Gulf’s Arab countries regarding the three Iranian islands because by so doing, Moscow would disappoint their key supporter in the region.

Referring to the recent statement of the Arab-Russian Conference on the three islands of the Greater Tunb, the Lesser Tunb and Abou Moussa, Maleki noted that it’s not the first time that the Arab states issue such communiqués.

He however said that the declarations of the Arab countries have not gone beyond mere statements like the recent one because they know that Iran will protect the region and the Persian Gulf in full force.

Maleki also criticized the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran for failing to do enough after the anti-Iranian statement. He said the Iranian people expected the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to summon the Russian ambassador over the issue.

Following the statement, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, in a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart reaffirmed Iran’s sovereignty over the three islands.

Official: Up to 10k best nurses of Iran have migrated

Iran Surgery Nurse Doctor

Mohammad Mirzabeigi said up to 10 thousand best nurses of Iran have migrated from the country.

He attributed the wave of the nurses’ migration to the rules and regulations that he says were not enforced properly and in line with the guidelines of the leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution and the president.

Mirzabeigi added that the most important measures needed to be taken to resolve the problems faced by the nursing sector include payment of special extra salaries, employment of workforce who are completing their projects in the sector, and the proper implementation of salary rules.

The Iranian health ministry has yet to comment on this.

Iran’s president: Hamas is an elected govt., represents people of Gaza 

President Raisi made the remarks at Tehran’s International Conference on Palestine on Saturday. He noted that the Palestinian issue can only be resolved through such a referendum.

Raisi added that the solution was proposed first by Iran’s leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and was registered with the United Nations.

The Iranian president noted that each Palestinian must be allowed to cast a vote on the fate of his or her land.

In other remarks, Raisi warned the US to avoid making plans for Gaza, saying the territory’s future must be determined by people living there, not the US. He added that Hamas is an elected government and represents people of Gaza.

Raisi also said the era is long gone when the US made decisions for nations.

The Iranian president said this is a democratic principle which is violated by Washington.

Raisi also maintained that the US is a great violator of democracy as it does not let world nations elect their governing systems.

The Iranian president said the US officials must be put on trial for the crimes committed against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, adding that Washington’s true face was uncovered during the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Officials, thinkers and intellectuals from 50 countries attended the day-long conference in Tehran.

Iran, Egypt presidents call for mutual efforts to end Gaza war

Raisi and Sisi

In a telephone conversation on Saturday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah El-Sisi talked about a range of issues, including the relations between the two Muslim nations and the latest developments in Palestine.

Congratulating Egypt on holding the recent presidential election and wishing success for Sisi during his new term, Raisi said Tehran welcomes the enhancement of relations with Cairo in various fields.

The Islamic Republic of Iran declares that the restoration of the Palestinian nation’s rights is the Muslim world’s overriding issue, he added.

Voicing Iran’s readiness to employ all capacities to stop the Israeli regime’s genocidal crimes and provide relief aid for the people of Gaza, President Raisi stated Tehran expects Egypt to do so as well.

He also slammed the Zionist regime as a cancerous tumor and a threat to regional peace and security, taking a swipe at the US for hypocritically urging all sides to exercise restraint while Washington itself has acted as the main sponsor of the Zionist regime’s crimes.

For his part, the Egyptian president highlighted the role that Egypt and Iran, considering their civilizational and historical position, can play in the establishment of regional security and stability.

He also expressed Egypt’s readiness to take practical steps to address the problems between the two countries.

Sisi stated that Egypt has done its utmost to stop the onslaught on Gaza, deliver humanitarian aids to people in the besieged enclave, and restore the rights of Palestinians.

The Egyptian leader also lauded Iran for supporting the people of Gaza, saying Tehran plays a significant role in ensuring stability in the region.