Day of escalation in south Lebanon; 'diplomacy's time is running out,' warns Gantz: Day 82 of Hamas-Israel war

Thank you for following our LIVE coverage of day 82 of the Israel-Hamas war. We will be back tomorrow with more news updates.

Gaza's government media office said in a live press conference that among the at least 21,110 Palestinians killed since Oct. 7 are 8,800 children, 6,300 women, 3111 medics and medical staff, 40 civil defense staff and more than 100 journalists, according to Al Jazeera.

A spokesman for the office also said during the press conference that 7,000 people remain missing, 55,243 people have been injured, 92 schools and universities have been destroyed, 65,000 houses, 115 mosques and three churches have been destroyed, 23 hospitals and 53 medical centers are no longer operational, and 102 ambulances have been targeted.

BREAKING: Member of the Israeli war cabinet Benny Gantz says the situation on Israel's northern border "must change" and the time for diplomacy is running out, during a press conference, Reuters reported.

During the press conference, Gantz added that "if the world and the Lebanese government don't act in order to prevent the firing on Israel's northern residents, and to distance Hezbollah from the border, the [Israeli military] will do it," he said.

Three airstrikes by Israeli drone aircraft targeted the outskirts of Aita al-Shaab (Bint Jbeil district), security sources told our correspondent. They added that there were no injuries.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah "must understand that he is next on the list," stated Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen on Wednesday, during a tour with foreign ambassadors at Israel's northern border. This was reported by several Israeli media outlets, according to the Lebanese agency Al-Markazia.

Cohen reportedly added, "if he doesn’t want to be next on the list, he must immediately implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and remove Hezbollah from north of the Litani River."

Cohen did not specify who exactly Nasrallah is after, whether it was a member of Hezbollah, Hamas, the Revolutionary Guards, or a member of the "axis of resistance."

These remarks come in the wake of a commander from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards being killed in Syria on Monday in an incident Iran attributed to Israel. On Wednesday, the Revolutionary Guards warned of retaliation for this assassination through "direct action and other means carried out by the resistance front."

UNRWA's Director of Communications Juliette Touma says people in Gaza "lost everything and they need everything,” in a post on the official UNRWA account on X.

The requirements include basics such as food and water, not to mention protection from Israeli bombardment and raids. Their needs are amplified by the winter season, which means seeking more warm clothes and blankets, Touma added.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan about the Israel-Hamas conflict and “the importance of increasing the speed and scale of humanitarian assistance to Gaza,” US spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement, reported by state-run Anadolu news agency. According to the report, Fidan emphasized the need for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and the commencement of peace talks.

Blinken shakes hands with Fidan in a November meeting. (Photo credit: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

This picture taken from a position along the border in northern Israel earlier today shows smoke billowing in the southern Lebanese village of Marwahine following Israeli bombardment. (Photo credit: Jalaa Marey/AFP)

🔴 BREAKING: Hezbollah has launched the most rockets and weaponized drones against Israel today that it has in a single day since daily clashes began, Reuters reports, citing security sources.

According to security sources who spoke to L'Orient Today's correspondent in the south, the average number of rockets fired from Lebanon towards Israel in one day usually sits around 20, while today, over 90 rockets were fired.

Between 80 to 90 rockets were launched by "the resistance," targeting Israeli sites, including Volcano and Katyusha rockets, artillery, and drone raids, security sources told L'Orient Today's correspondent in the south.

Hezbollah announces that in response to "the repeated crimes of the [Israeli] enemy targeting civilian homes in Bint Jbeil," the party's fighters targeted the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona at 4:30 p.m. with 30 Katyusha rockets.

Katyushas make up the majority of Hezbollah’s rocket arsenal and was the Party’s weapon of choice in the 2006 Lebanon War, according to Missile Threat, a US center for strategic international studies.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who he said commits genocide against Kurds and imprisons journalists, is the last person who should be preaching morality to others, Reuters reports.

Netanyahu was speaking after the Turkish president described the Israeli leader as no different to Adolf Hitler.

According to eyewitnesses, there were three missiles fired from Lebanon, near Hula, Nabatieh district, to intercept Israeli missiles launched towards this area. The outskirts of Tyr Harfa, Sour district, were also targeted by Israeli missiles, local residents told L'Orient Today's correspondent, and an Israeli drone fired a rocket at a house in the town causing a fire, the mayor says. As of now, there are no reports of casualties.

The International Committee of the Red Cross in Israel and the occupied territories says “humanitarian workers, vehicles and buildings must be protected during conflict.”

It posted its message on X following an Israeli attack on the Palestine Red Crescent Society compound in Khan Younis.

Vessels from French shipping company CMA-CGM have returned to the Red Sea following attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen, and those from Maersk will follow suit, the two shipping giants announce, according to a report from AFP.

"Some ships have been transiting the Red Sea" and "we plan to gradually increase the transit of our ships through the Suez Canal," said French group CMA-CGM in a message to its customers, forwarded to AFP.

Mourners chanted "Death to America, Death to Israel" during today's funeral service for a senior adviser in Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Sayyed Razi Mousavi, who was killed in an air strike in Syria on Monday, Reuters reports.

👉 Read more about Monday's attack here.

During the funeral in Iraq's holy city of Najaf, Mousavi's coffin was passed over the heads of members of the Popular Mobilization Forces, a heavily armed state paramilitary grouping that contains dozens of Iran-backed factions. Following the funeral, his coffin will be flown to Iran for burial.

The Revolutionary Guards, Iran's dominant military force, have said Israel will suffer for killing Mousavi. An Israeli military spokesperson wouldn't comment specifically about his death but said the army took whatever action necessary to defend the country.

(Photo credit: Qassem al-Kaabi/AFP)

Palestinian men sit by debris outside a damaged building in the aftermath of an Israeli raid in the Nur Shams camp for Palestinian refugees near the northern city of Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank on Dec. 26, 2023.

The Israeli operation in the Palestinian refugee camp in the north of the occupied West Bank left six people dead and several others wounded according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, the six people were killed by Israeli air strikes on the refugee camp where Israeli soldiers were also deployed.

(Photo: Zain Jaafar/AFP)

The total number of people displaced in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, following the demolition of their homes, has risen to 393 Palestinians, including 208 children, says the UN agency OCHA.

The demolitions are carried out because of the lack of Israeli-issued building permits in “Area C” of the West Bank and Jerusalem, which are almost impossible to obtain, the agency said.

The monthly average of displacement between Oct. 7 and Dec. 7 represents a 27 percent increase compared to the first nine months of the year.

An Israeli drone targeted the al-Safeh area, southeast of the town of Mais al-Jabal, Marjeyoun district, hitting it with a missile, residents told our correspondent in the south.

Residents of Naqoura told our correspondent that Israeli warplanes struck the Labbouneh region (Sour).

Additionally, Israeli planes fired two missiles at Jabal Blat near the village of Marwahine (Sour), according to a security source.

An Israeli strike near al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis killed 20, the Gazan health ministry says according to Reuters.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to visit the Middle East once more next week to discuss the ongoing war in Gaza, Reuters reports.

He will visit Israel, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Israeli artillery shelling targeted the western outskirts of Mais al-Jabal, residents of the town told our correspondent in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah announced that it launched an attack at 1:15 p.m. using drones, missiles and artillery weapons, hitting newly developed gathering points of Israeli soldiers and vehicles behind Israeli positions in the occupied Shebaa Farms.

The Israeli army dismissed five soldiers from the "Sfar Hamidbar" unit, composed mainly of settlers, following their involvement in an attack on Palestinians in October, a defense source told Haaretz.

As reported by Haaretz, during the incident, settlers and soldiers attacked three Palestinians in the village of Wadi al-Sik in the West Bank.

According to the Palestinians' testimonies, the attackers robbed and beat them, poured urine on them, and put out cigarettes on them.

Recently, the military halted the unit's operational activity.

An Israeli drone fired a missile at the eastern outskirts of Rashaya al-Foukar (Hasbaya), residents of the area told our correspondent in southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah announced that it hit at 1:00 p.m. the site of Khirbet Ma'ar, its artillery emplacements and Israeli forces around the site with Burkan missiles.

21,110 Palestinians have been killed and 55,243 injured in Gaza since the start of the war on Oct. 7, Gaza's health ministry says according to Reuters.

The ministry added that 195 people had been killed and 325 injured in the last 24 hours.

The Israeli site of Birkat Risha was bombarded, a security source told our correspondent in southern Lebanon.

Moreover, Halta (Hasbaya district) residents witnessed missiles fired at Israeli sites in the occupied Shebaa and Kfar Shouba Heights around 30 minutes ago.

Finally, Israeli artillery shelling has targeted an area between Halta and Kfar Shouba, the outskirts of Shebaa and Rashaya al-Foukhar (Hasbaya district), according to residents.

People react as they check the rubble of a building in Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel, following Israeli bombardment the previous night, on Dec. 27, 2023, amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza. (Credit: AFP)

Hezbollah announced that it hit a tent of an Israeli army special force unit, south of the Dhayra site, with guided missiles at noon, saying it caused casualties.

The party also said that it targeted the Israeli site of Hadab al-Bustan at 12: 15 p.m.

Hamas has reacted to Iranian claims that the Oct. 7 "al-Aqsa Flood" operation was in retaliation for the assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Iraq in 2020.

In a statement published on its Telegram channel, the Hamas press office "denied" the Iranian claims, stressing that the operation was a response, among other things, "to the dangers threatening al-Aqsa Mosque."

Six Israeli artillery shells have fallen on the outskirts of Tayr Harfa, Dhaira and Yarine (Sour), a security source and residents told our correspondent in southern Lebanon.

A plume of dark smoke rises over the northern Gaza Strip during Israeli bombardment from southern Israel on Dec. 27, 2023 amid continuing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (Credit: Jack Guez/AFP)

New Israeli bombardments have been reported in the Wadi Hamoul area on the outskirts of Naqoura in southern Lebanon, according to residents quoted by our correspondent.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) spokesperson Ramadan Sharif said that Hamas's Operation al-Aqsa Flood "was one of the retaliations to the assassination of [Iranian military officer Qassem] Soleimani," according to Mehr News, a semi-official Iranian news agency.

Operation al-Aqsa Flood, a large-scale attack launched by Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7, killed more than 1,100 Israelis.

Soleimani, commander of the IRGC's external operations unit, the Quds Force, was killed by an American drone in Iraq in Jan. 2020.

Israel's army chief, Herzi Halevi, says that the Israeli offensive in Gaza will last for "many more months" as the Israeli military continues to expand its strikes and operations in the enclave, AFP reports.

Over 20,900 people have been killed in Gaza since the war started on Oct. 7 with an increasing number of people in the international community calling for a cease-fire. Israel has continued to refuse these calls.

At the start of the war, Israel said that it was going to uproot Hamas from Gaza and destroy it.

Read the full story here.

Hezbollah announced that it had targeted a new Israeli military position near an Israeli naval site opposite Ras al-Naqoura in southern Lebanon. According to Israeli military radio, 18 rockets were launched towards the site.

US and Israeli officials met on Tuesday to discuss the shifting to "different phases" of the war in Gaza, the White House said according to AFP.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer where the two discussed how to maximize the distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza and minimize the number of civilian casualties. The US has also been pushing for a transition from a wide-scale military offensive to targeted operations that go after "high-value Hamas targets."

A number of Israeli interceptor missiles exploded above the town of Naqoura, South Lebanon residents told our correspondent in southern Lebanon.

Moreover, residents reported that Israel's artillery is shelling the outskirts of Naqoura.

Six people were killed during an Israeli operation on the Nur Shams Refugee Camp near the town of Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank, AFP reports.

The six were killed by Israeli airstrikes on the camp.

"Six martyrs killed by the occupation (Israel) and some who were seriously wounded were transported to the Thabet Thabet government hospital in Tulkarem," the Palestinian health ministry said.

A number of missiles were launched from southern Lebanon towards Israeli sites a short while ago, a security source told our correspondent.

Hezbollah announced the death of one of its members, Ali Bazzi, from Bint Jbeil.

Last night, Israel struck a house in Bint Jbeil killing three people, including Bazzi.

129 Hezbollah members have been killed so far since the beginning of the hostilities on the Lebanese-Israeli borders on Oct. 8th.

The United Nations named Sigrid Kaag, the Netherlands's outgoing minister of finance, as its humanitarian coordinator in Gaza after the start of the new year, AFP reports.

This appointment comes as the situation in Gaza is deteriorating and many are warning of a massive humanitarian disaster in the besieged enclave.

Read the full report here.

The US shot down over a dozen drones and several missiles fired from Yemen at ships in the Red Sea Tuesday, the Pentagon said according to AFP.

According to the Pentagon, there was no damage to any of the ships or any injuries reported.

The Houthis, which are supported by Iran, have consistently expressed their support for Hamas and the people of Gaza and have repeatedly targeted ships passing through the Red Sea.

Read the full story here.

France said that it is "gravy concerned" about Israel's announcement that it was expanding and prolonging its offensive in Gaza, France's foreign ministry stated according to AFP.

The foreign ministry added that it "strongly reiterates its call for an immediate truce leading to a cease-fire" and condemns the "systematic bombing that has again left many civilian victims in recent days."

Israeli bombings were reported around the village of Aita al-Shaab (Nabatieh) in South Lebanon, residents report to our correspondent.

Make sure that you read the Morning Brief to ensure that you are caught up with everything that has been happening and what to expect.

Morning Brief

Israeli strike kills two, weapons licenses frozen, 54 rescued off Arida coast: Everything you need to know to start your Wednesday

Good morning!

Thank you for joining us for our live coverage of the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza.