Headlines
Israel Tightens Siege on Gaza As Hamas Reviews Trump’s Peace Deal Offer
Israel’s defence minister has said the country’s forces are “tightening the siege” around Gaza City by extending a military corridor across the territory towards the coast.
Israel Katz also issued a final warning to the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the city to evacuate southwards, saying those who remained during the offensive against Hamas would be “terrorists and supporters of terror”.
Hospitals reported that 45 people had been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza City on Wednesday, while the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had been forced to suspend operations there.
Israel is stepping up the assault as Hamas weighs its response to a new US plan to end the war.
Arab and Turkish mediators are understood to be pressing for a positive response, but a senior Hamas figure has said the armed group is likely to reject it.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has described Gaza City as Hamas’s “last stronghold”.
It has said the offensive aims to secure the release of the 48 hostages still held by Hamas – 20 of whom are believed to be alive – and ensure the group’s “decisive defeat”.
Israel’s defence minister told Israeli media on Wednesday that the IDF was “currently completing the capture of the Netzarim corridor to the western coast of Gaza” – a reference to the Israeli military zone that runs east-west from the perimeter with Israel.
“This will tighten the siege around Gaza City, and anyone leaving it south will be forced to pass through the IDF’s checkpoints,” the Haaretz newspaper quoted Katz as saying.
He warned that this was the “last chance for Gaza [City] residents who are interested in moving south and leaving Hamas terrorists isolated in Gaza City itself in the face of IDF activity that continues at full strength”.
“Those who remain in Gaza will be terrorists and terror supporters,” he warned.
The International Committee of the Red Cross stated that “under international humanitarian law, civilians must be protected whether they stay or leave Gaza City”.
It also said that Israel, as the occupying power, had an obligation to ensure their basic needs were met, including by protecting medical personnel and allowing the rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian assistance throughout the Strip.
The ICRC’s warning came in a statement announcing that the intensification of military operations had forced it to suspend operations at its office in Gaza City, where it said civilians were “being killed, forcibly displaced and made to endure dire conditions”.
“The ICRC will continue to strive to provide support to civilians in Gaza City, whenever circumstances allow, from our offices in Deir al-Balah and Rafah [in central and southern Gaza], which remain fully operational,” it said.
“This includes providing medical donations to the few remaining health facilities in Gaza City and doing the utmost to facilitate the movements of first responders.”
Also on Wednesday, the IDF’s Arabic spokesman announced that people in the south of Gaza would no longer be able to use the al-Rashid coastal road to travel north to Gaza City. The road would remain open for those fleeing south, he said.
Gaza’s Hamas-run Government Media Office condemned the decision, which it said was “part of the ongoing policy of suffocation, siege, and genocide perpetrated by the occupation [Israel] against our Palestinian people in the Strip”.
The IDF has ordered Gaza City residents to evacuate to a designated “humanitarian area” in the southern al-Mawasi area.
Israeli media cited the IDF as saying on Monday that about 800,000 people had fled the city since the plans for the offensive were announced in August, and that between 250,000 and 350,000 people remained.
However, the UN and its humanitarian partners said they had only monitored 397,000 people crossing into southern Gaza as of Saturday.
Unicef spokesman James Elder told the BBC that during a recent visit to Gaza City he had witnessed “multiple air strikes in the very short time” and “a mix of children who are emaciated [and] utterly exhausted women”.
“Anyone who could speak English would explain to me that staying in Gaza City is not a choice, that they don’t have the funds to go south. They don’t have the transport. Once they get south, they know there’s no land, and certainly that they don’t have a tent,” he said.
They also knew that conditions in al-Mawasi were overcrowded and unsanitary, and that it was not spared from Israeli strikes, he added.
“They’ve seen what shrapnel does to a tent. They’ve seen tents engulfed by flames. So they’re well aware that safety, be it from the skies or disease from the ground, certainly doesn’t exist.”
Medics said 29 of those killed in Gaza City on Wednesday were brought to al-Ahli hospital, in the southern Zeitoun neighbourhood.
A video filmed overnight appeared to show four severely injured men wearing high-visibility jackets receiving treatment inside a tent there.
The Hamas-run Civil Defence agency alleged that a team of its paramedics and firefighters were “directly targeted” by an Israeli strike as they responded to a strike on nearby al-Falah school, which was being used as a shelter for displaced families.
It said the rescuers had been performing humanitarian work, wearing uniforms, and driving marked vehicles, and that the attack constituted a flagrant violation of international law.
The agency initially said seven rescuers were injured and two were in a critical condition. Later, it announced that one of them, Munther al-Dahshan, had died.
Palestinian media reported that six people were killed in the initial strike on the school. One Civil Defence member said on social media that the casualties included children, and posted a video of a severely injured boy lying on a hospital bed frame.
When asked to comment, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that it “struck a Hamas terrorist” and that “steps were taken in order to mitigate harm to civilians”.
Israel’s government approved plans for the Gaza City offensive following the breakdown of indirect talks with Hamas on a previous US proposal for a deal that would have seen about half of the hostages released during a 60-day ceasefire.
Arab and Turkish mediators have been meeting Hamas leaders in Qatar, putting pressure on them to accept the new 20-point peace plan unveiled by President Donald Trump on Monday.
However, a senior Hamas figure told the BBC that it served “Israel’s interests” and that the group was likely to reject it.
The plan includes an immediate end to the war, the release of all the hostages within 72 hours in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, as well as the disarmament of Hamas and a gradual Israeli troop withdrawal.
Trump told reporters on Tuesday that Hamas leaders had “three or four days” to accept the terms. He later warned that they would “pay in hell if they don’t sign”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile told a government meeting that he agreed to the plan because it achieved all of Israel’s war objectives.
However, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is said to have called the plan “dangerous” and “full of holes”.
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
At least 66,148 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
BBC
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has expelled Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike, its suspended National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu, and former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose.
Their expulsion was announced on Saturday at the party’s National Convention in Ibadan, Oyo State.
The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) has insisted that there is Christian genocide ongoing in Nigeria, hence demanding end to the alleged Christian killings.
Speaking on Thursday after an emergency executive meeting of the Fellowship held at its national headquarters in Lagos, PFN President, Bishop Francis Wale Oke, said the body would no longer remain silent while Christians are “targeted, killed, raped, and displaced” across the country.
He said: “There is Christian genocide going on in Nigeria. If we call it by any other name, it will bring Nigeria down. We are crying out to our international friends, beginning with America and Donald Trump. Whatever you can do to help our government put an end to it, come quickly and get it done. When on Christmas Day, Christmas Day was turned a bloody day in Benue State, and hundreds were massacred. And we are to be conducting mass funerals when we are not in open conflict. What do you call that? And this is different from individual cases.
“Let us call a spade a spade. There is Christian genocide ongoing in Nigeria,”Bishop Oke declared.
“Even while we speak, killings are still taking place in Borno, Plateau, and Benue states. When 501 Christians were massacred in Dogon Noma in Plateau, what do we call that? When Christmas Day turned into a bloody day in Benue, with hundreds massacred, what name should we give it?
While noting that the United States President Donald Trump spoke the truth, the PRN President cited the case of Leah Sharibu who was abducted alongside other Chibok girls and has since remained in captivity.
“Like the case of Leah Sharibu. Where is Leah Sharibu? Like the case of Deborah that was lynched and burned alive in Sokoto? What about that? And several of our girls were kidnapped and forced, given out as wives by force without the consent of their parents and their Christian parents. And the Christian parents would not see them for years.And this has been going on. We have been talking and we are not taking it seriously. And it has been going on again and again, until Donald Trump now spoke. And Donald Trump spoke the truth. There is Christian genocide going on in Nigeria.
“Like you will have picked in the news, even since this narrative began, killing was still going on in Borno, in Plateau, in Benue, up until yesterday. What are we saying? When 501 Christians were massacred in Dogonaya in Plateau State, what do we call that? And for no offense other than they are Christians.”
Oke recalled that the Christian community had repeatedly called the attention of the government to the alleged genocide with no decisive action from the authority.
The cleric expressed his backing for President Trump’s intervention, adding that Trump only echoed what Nigerian Christians had been saying for year
“I was part of the team that went to see the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari. We spoke very strongly about this and the President listened to us, but he completely ignored the main issue we came for, If we came and spoke with such vehemence, with such passion, and then you pick the peripheral matter and left this matter alone, I knew that day that his government was complicit in what was going on,” he added.
Oke alleged that the killings across parts of Nigeria were systematic and targeted on Christians, lamenting that the killings had continued unchecked despite repeated appeals from the Church.
“The evidence is all over the place. There is nothing anybody can say that can whitewash it. It is evil, it is blood shedding, it is mass murder and it is genocide. The time to stop it is now. That is what the church in Nigeria is saying with one voice.
“Christians in this nation must be free to practice their faith in any part of Nigeria as bona fide citizens of Nigeria.
“These armed bandits, Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram, ISWAP, all of them using Islam as a cover. We have been living in peace with our Muslim brothers for a long, until this violent Islamic sect came up with an intent to make sure they impose Sharia on all Nigerians,” Oke said.
Bishop Oke called on President Bola Tinubu to decisively overhaul the nation’s security architecture, and ensure justice for victims of religious violence. He questioned why those responsible for notorious attacks—such as the killing of Deborah Samuel in Sokoto and the abduction of Leah Sharibu and the Chibok schoolgirls—remain unpunished.
“The government should prove by action, not words, that it is not complicit,” he said. “When hundreds are buried in mass graves and the whole world sees it, who can deny it? Why should we play politics with the blood of Nigerians?”
The PFN urged President Tinubu’s administration to rebuild trust by ensuring that the security architecture of the country is not infiltrated by those sympathetic to extremist ideologies.
Oke further condemned the government’s rehabilitation of so-called “repentant terrorists,” describing the move as a grave security.
He assured Christians that the PFN would continue to speak out until the killings stop. “We are not going to keep quiet. We will keep raising our voices until justice is done and every Nigerian, regardless of faith, can live in peace. The truth may be suppressed for a time, but it cannot be buried forever,” he said.
The meeting, which drew PFN leaders from across the country, reaffirmed the body’s commitment to national unity, peace, and the protection of fundamental human rights, while urging the media to “side with the oppressed” and report the truth without fear or bias.
US President Donald Trump has signed a federal spending bill, officially ending the longest government shutdown in American history.
The legislation, passed by the House of Representatives in a 222–209 vote, followed narrow approval in the Senate just two days earlier. The bill restores funding to federal agencies after 43 days of closure, bringing relief to millions of government employees and citizens affected by halted services.
Speaking after signing the measure on Wednesday night, Trump described the deal as a political victory, asserting that Democrats unnecessarily prolonged the shutdown.
“They didn’t want to do it the easy way. They had to do it the hard way, and they look very bad,” he said.
The temporary funding bill maintains government operations only through 30 January, creating a new deadline for lawmakers to negotiate a long-term budget solution.
As part of the agreement, Senate leaders committed to an early December vote on Obamacare subsidies, a key priority for Democrats during the shutdown standoff.
In addition to reopening federal offices, the bill provides full-year funding for the Department of Agriculture, military construction projects, and several legislative branch offices.
It also ensures retroactive pay for federal workers affected by the shutdown and allocates funding to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, which helps about one in eight Americans access food.
The shutdown, which began in October, forced the suspension of many government services, leaving an estimated 1.4 million federal employees either furloughed or working without pay. It also disrupted food assistance programmes and caused widespread delays in domestic air travel.
With federal operations now resumed, attention in Washington has turned to whether Congress and the White House can reach a longer-term funding agreement before the new deadline at the end of January.
