8:45am AEDT, 3 December
What’s happening?
The truce ended Friday afternoon Australia time, after the deadline for Hamas to produce the next list of hostages it would release expired. In the hours leading up to that deadline, Hamas fired a rocket salvo into Israel and carried out a deadly terrorist attack in Jerusalem. The US blamed Hamas for the end of the truce. The ZFA issued a statement, here.
Israel has resumed the ground operation, including ‘extensive’ attacks in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. Tunnels in mosques and schools, and weaponry hidden under UNRWA equipment have since been discovered.
Rocket fire from Gaza resumed before and especially after the breakdown of the truce, with attacks directed toward Tel Aviv and other areas. Fire from Hezbollah in Lebanon has also recommenced, with Israel responding to individual attacks.
Background
The conditions the released hostages were held in are emerging. From children being branded and drugged, to malnutrition from lack of food, to being beaten by electrical cables, to being held by doctors and teachers.
Mansour Abbas, whose party became the first Arab party to join an Israeli governing coalition under Naftali Bennet, has now called on Arab factions to lay down their arms and make peace with Israel. He has been roundly condemned by other Arab groups. Right-wing Jewish Israeli Knesset members have also condemned his call.
The US has outlined its vision for a post-Hamas Gaza. It would be rebuilt with a ‘clear political horizon’ of a state ‘led by a revitalised Palestinian Authority’.
