In the face of the ongoing suffering of the Palestinian people amid Israel's genocidal war on Gaza and the West Bank and following the truce between Israel and Lebanon that took effect on 27 November, Ahram Online provided you with live updates of the most recent developments across the Middle East on Tuesday, 3 December as they unfolded.
21:30 A group of doctors and medical professionals have called for the evacuation of some 25,000 wounded and ill Palestinians from the besieged Gaza Strip, saying they should be brought to occupied East Jerusalem for treatment.
In a news conference held in East Jerusalem’s Augusta Victoria Hospital, doctors said the 25,000 people require “life-saving procedures”.
They called for the opening of “safe medical evacuation corridors” and for the right of those who receive treatment to be able to freely return to their homes in Gaza.
“We cannot let these children die simply because they cannot access the care they desperately need,” Khadrah Salama, a paediatric oncologist, was quoted as saying by the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
21:00 The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says it has distributed much-needed flour to some 9,000 families in areas across central Gaza.
The deliveries, facilitated by the World Food Programme, provide “vital assistance to a population hungry and in need of everything,” it said in a post on X.
20:45 French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Tuesday that he and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, would co-chair a conference on the establishment of a Palestinian state in June.
“We have decided to co-chair a conference for the two states in June next year,” Macron said, referring to Israel and a potential Palestinian state, adding: “In the coming months, together we will multiply and combine our diplomatic initiatives to bring everyone along this path”.
20:15 The death toll from a major militant offensive in northern Syria has risen to 602, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
The casualties include 299 fighters from the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and allied factions that launched the attack last Wednesday, 199 soldiers and pro-government fighters, and 104 civilians, according to the Observatory.
19:40 Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday called for a "speedy" end to the rebel offensive in Syria in a telephone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Kremlin said.
Putin "emphasised the need for a speedy end to terrorist aggression against the Syrian state by radical groups," the Kremlin said in a statement.
Putin also said there was a need to give "full support to the efforts of the lawful authorities to restore stability and constitutional order throughout the country", adding that this should involve "using Ankara's capabilities in the region".
The Kremlin said the leaders called for "strengthening of cooperation" between them.
They also noted "the key importance of further close coordination between Russia, Turkey and Iran in normalising the situation in Syria," the Kremlin said, adding that Erdogan and Putin "will continue contacting each other in the context of seeking steps to de-escalate the crisis".
18:40 Turkish Airlines has resumed flights from Istanbul to Beirut after a more than two-month suspension prompted by conflict in the Middle East, Turkey’s state-owned Anadolu news agency reported.
18:25 The Israeli military claimed that it had killed Salman Jumaa, a senior Hezbollah figure responsible for liaising with the Syrian army, in Damascus.
A Lebanese security source had told Reuters earlier in the day that an Israeli airstrike on a car near Syria’s capital killed Jumaa.
Syria’s state news agency had reported the strike on the airport road but did not offer details on casualties.
18:20 Iran will consider any request from its Syrian ally for troops to help tackle a sweeping rebel offensive in the north, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Tuesday.
"If the Syrian government asks us to send forces to Syria, we will study their request," Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an excerpt from an interview published on his official Telegam channel.
17:50 Fighters from a US-backed, Kurdish-led coalition clashed with Syrian government forces in northeastern Syria early Tuesday, marking a new front in the conflict for President Bashar al-Assad, reported Reuters.
The fighting occurred near villages across the Euphrates River from Deir al-Zor, a strategically vital region. Airstrikes also targeted Iran-backed militia groups supporting Syrian government forces in the area, according to a security source in eastern Syria and a Syrian army source.
Both sources attributed the airstrikes to the US-led military coalition, which operates in Syria against Islamic State and maintains a small detachment of American troops. The coalition has not responded to requests for comment, and Reuters said it could not independently verify the claim.
The clashes come as Assad’s forces are also engaged in renewed fighting near Hama following a sudden rebel advance that resulted in the loss of Aleppo last week, further complicating the military landscape.
17:10 At least ten civilians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday that targeted a school and a sports club housing displaced persons in Gaza City, according to local sources.
Israeli warplanes bombed the al-Falah School in the Al-Zeitoun neighborhood, killing six civilians and injuring others. A separate drone strike on the al-Jazeera Sports Club, also sheltering displaced individuals in central Gaza City, claimed two more lives.
Additionally, two women were killed, and others injured in a bombing of a civilian gathering in Al-Zeitoun. In southern Gaza, three civilians were killed, and others injured in a drone strike targeting a group in the Rafah Governorate.
The ongoing Israeli war on Gaza has resulted in 44,502 deaths and 105,454 injuries, predominantly among women and children, with over 10,000 people reported missing.
16:40 A Lebanese shepherd, Jamal Mohammad Saab, was killed in Shebaa on Tuesday after being struck by a missile fired from an Israeli drone, according to the Lebanese NNA.
Separately, an artillery shell landed in the Marjayoun plain near the Tel Marjayoun area, causing material damage but no reported casualties.
In another incident, an Israeli Merkava tank advanced from the Tel Nahas area toward the Deirmimas–Burj Al-Muluk–Kfarkela triangle, stopping approximately 200 meters from a Lebanese Army checkpoint in Burj Al-Muluk.
The incidents mark continued Israeli ceasefire violations in southern Lebanon amid an already fragile truce agreement.
16:00 Qatar said Tuesday that there was no military solution to the Syrian civil war, as the Syrian government scrambled to contain a rebel offensive now nearing its second week.
"The military solution will not lead to a sustainable result," foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said. "The political solution is the only way to end the suffering of the Syrian people.
"We also always stress the necessity of sparing civilians the consequences of this military escalation. We urge all parties to immediately de-escalate and stress the necessity of ensuring the entry of aid," Ansari added.
15:00 The United Nations raised the alarm over attacks on civilians and the health system in northwest Syria where surging hostilities have killed hundreds and pushed tens of thousands to flee.
The attacks around a lightning offensive by Islamist insurgents, who have seized Syria's second city Aleppo, were deepening the suffering endured by millions in the country after years of civil war, the United Nations rights office said.
"UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk is extremely concerned about the escalation in hostilities," his spokesman Jeremy Laurence told reporters in Geneva.
"This is tragic, as many have lived in misery since the outbreak of conflict nearly 14 years ago," he said.
14:15 Israeli forces conducted multiple attacks in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, violating the week-old ceasefire agreement.
A drone strike targeted the outskirts of Deir Siryan, while heavy machine gun fire was directed at the town of Majdal Zoun in the western sector of southern Lebanon, the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA) reported.
The latest actions add to a series of breaches that have raised concerns about the stability of the truce between Israel and Lebanon.
14:00 Six civilians were killed, and two others injured in an Israeli airstrike on the town of Haris in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, according to the Lebanese NNA.
The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health confirmed the updated toll in a statement following the attack. The strike is one of several violations of the ceasefire agreement that went into effect a week ago, further escalating tensions in the region.
13:45 Israeli occupation forces detained at least 18 Palestinians, including children and former prisoners, during raids across the West Bank overnight, according to the Palestinian Authority's Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Society.
The arrests occurred in the governorates of Salfit, Hebron, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Nablus, and Jerusalem. According to witnesses, the raids were accompanied by physical assaults, threats against families, and extensive property damage.
Since the beginning of the Israeli war on Gaza in October 2023, more than 11,900 Palestinians have been detained in the West Bank, including Jerusalem. The exact number of detainees from Gaza remains unknown, with thousands believed to be held under enforced disappearances by Israeli forces.
13:30 Insurgents battled Syrian army troops as they advanced towards the city of Hama in central Syria, a war monitor said.
Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) and its allies fought some of the "most violent" clashes with troops in the area since launching a lightning offensive last week, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.
"Clashes have erupted in the northern Hama countryside, where rebel factions managed to seize several cities and towns in the last few hours," said the Britain-based monitor, which has a network of sources inside Syria.
"Syrian and Russian air forces carried out dozens of strikes on the area," it added.
State news agency SANA also reported air strikes on Hama province and insurgents’ bastion Idlib in the northwest.
Hama is a strategic city linking Aleppo to the capital Damascus.
Insurgents’ takeover of Hama would "pose a threat to the regime's popular base", Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
The province's western countryside is home to the Alawite community from which Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad hails.
The UN says nearly 50,000 people have been displaced by the fighting that has killed hundreds, mostly insurgents, since the end of November.
13:15 The health ministry in Gaza said that at least 44,502 people have been killed in nearly 14 months of Israeli war on Gaza.
The toll includes 36 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 105,454 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began.
13:00 Defence Minister Israel Katz warned Tuesday that if a ceasefire reached last week collapses, Israel will penetrate deeper into Lebanon and will no longer differentiate between the Lebanese army and Hezbollah.
"If we return to war, we will act with greater force and penetrate deeper and... there will be no immunity for the state of Lebanon," he said during a tour of Israel's northern border, adding that "until now, we made a distinction between Lebanon and Hezbollah... it will no longer be the case".
12:05 Several civilians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on various areas across the Gaza Strip, according to WAFA.
Medical sources reported that three members of the Al-Masry family were killed in the Israeli army’s bombing of Beit Lahia Street in the north of the Strip while they were going to inspect their homes.
Dozens were also killed and others injured when Israel bombed a four-story residential building south of Gaza City.
A civilian was killed in the Israeli bombing of the town of Al-Nasr, northeast of Rafah in the south.
Last night, Israel issued evacuation orders for areas in Al-Qarara, north of Khan Yunis, namely: Abu Al-Ajeen, Abu Holi, Al-Matahen, and North Al-Qarara.
12:00 An Israeli air strike hit a car on the Damascus airport road, causing it to explode, Syria's official news agency SANA reported.
"A car exploded after it was targeted in an Israeli aggression on the road to Damascus International Airport," SANA reported, citing a police source, without saying who was targeted or if there were any casualties.
People queue to get bread distributed by a charity initiative in a neighbourhood in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. AFP
11:00 In more than 20 testimonies, Palestinians told the Israeli human rights watchdog B’Tselem how during the summer of 2024, soldiers randomly seized them from the street, a checkpoint, or a home and subjected them to severe physical abuse, some in plain sight and others after taking them into a military post.
Testimonies are included in the most recent report of B’Tselem issued on Tuesday and entitled “Unleashed: Abuse of Palestinians by Israeli Soldiers in the Center of Hebron”.
B’Tselem executive director Yuli Novak said that the Israeli “Soldiers randomly seized people (Palestinians) going about their daily affairs and beat them, some to the point of unconsciousness, as though it were a routine matter. The testimonies gathered by our field researchers reveal shocking norms of violent conduct among Israeli soldiers. After more than a year of unrelenting war against the Palestinian people, abusing passersby has become not only legitimate but even welcome. This goes beyond isolated incidents or breaches of regulations: we are seeing a pattern of systemic conduct that is the result of the dehumanization of Palestinians, led by the Israeli government.”
10:45 Palestinian movement Hamas and the Palestinian Fatah party have agreed to create a committee to jointly administer post-war Gaza, negotiators from both sides said Tuesday.
Under the plan, which needs Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas's approval, the committee would be composed of 10 to 15 non-partisan figures with authority on matters related to the economy, education, health, humanitarian aid and reconstruction, according to a draft of the proposal seen by AFP.
10:30 At least 12 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since the early dawn of Tuesday, according to medical sources, Quds News Network said on its X account.
Palestinians walk in a devastated neighbourhood due to Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza Strip. AFP
10:20 The Israeli military has continued its intensive land, air and sea war on northern Gaza for 60 days, leaving 3,700 people missed or killed and wounding 10,000 others, Gaza’s Media Office stated, according to Palestine Online’s X account.
2,400 of the 3,700 people who were killed or missing were buried under the rubble.
Palestinians evacuate a wounded man from the site of an Israeli strike that targeted a home in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. AFP
9:30 Iraq's powerful Iran-aligned Kataeb Hezbollah armed group has called on Baghdad to send troops to Syria to support the Syrian government against a rebel offensive.
Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades, appealed in a statement shared on pro-Iranian Telegram channels late Monday. Excerpts were also posted on its official website.
The rebel offensive, led by extremist Islamists, has seized the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, stirring concern in political and security circles in neighbouring Iraq.
A spokesman for Kataeb Hezbollah, part of the Iran-backed "axis of resistance", said the group had not yet decided to deploy its fighters but urged Baghdad to act.
"We believe the Iraqi government should take the initiative to send regular military forces in coordination with the Syrian government, as these groups pose a threat to Iraq's national security and the region," the spokesman said.
Kataeb Hezbollah has previously fought in Syria alongside forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
In Iraq, it is part of the Hashed al-Shaabi, a coalition of former paramilitary forces now integrated into the regular armed forces.
This coalition, under the Iraqi prime minister's command, denies involvement outside Iraq's borders.
Iraq remains scarred by the rise of the Islamic State group in 2014, which saw the jihadists capture nearly a third of the country before being defeated in 2017.
On Monday, Iraq said it had sent armoured vehicles to bolster security along its 600-kilometre (370-mile) border with Syria.
A handout picture released by the Iraq's Defence Ministry shows Iraqi military equipment being transported towards the border with Syria. AFP
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor reported the deployment of about 200 Iraqi fighters in Syria's Aleppo region to back government forces.
9:00 Israel unleashed its largest wave of airstrikes across Lebanon since agreeing to a ceasefire with Hezbollah last week, killing at least 11 people on Monday evening after the Lebanese group fired a volley of projectiles as a warning over what it said were Israeli truce violations.
The projectiles were the first time that Hezbollah aimed at Israeli forces after the 60-day ceasefire went into effect last Wednesday. The increasingly fragile truce aimed to end more than a year of Israeli war in Lebanon, which is part of a wider devastating Israeli war on Gaza.
A staff member of the Amel Association, a Lebanese non-governmental organisation, salvages items at their branch that was damaged in an Israeli strike on a nearby building, in Beirut's southern suburbs Hay el-Sellom neighbourhood. AFP
In the United States, President-elect Donald Trump demanded the immediate release of Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian Hamas group in Gaza, saying on social media that if they were not freed before he takes office in January there would be “HELL TO PAY.”
It was not immediately clear whether Trump was threatening to directly involve the US military in Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza. The US has given Israel crucial military and diplomatic support throughout the nearly 15-month conflict.
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