What happened today

• Israeli security sources say that the IDF is unable to create new conditions for another hostage-release deal. They note that although 50 percent of Hamas’ battalion commanders have been killed, militants from more junior ranks are taking their place thus limiting the impact on Hamas’ fighting capacities.

■ A Hamas al-Qassam Brigades spokesperson told Al Jazeera on Sunday that Israel will not be able to recover hostages held in Gaza by force, only via a hostage/prisoner exchange.

■ Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed Al Thani said on Sunday that Qatar will continue to pressure Israel and Hamas for another truce, including the freeing of hostages, despite what he called “narrowing” chances. He said the war puts an entire generation at risk of “radicalization.”

• Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia urged the U.S. to pressure Israel for a cease-fire by Ramadan which begins in the second week of March next year.
• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the inability of the UN Security Council to vote for a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza undermines the council’s authority and trust in it.

■ The Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza said that 18,000 Palestinians have been killed and 49,500 wounded since the war began. It told Al Jazeera that almost 300 people were killed and more than 550 were wounded in the last 24 hours.

■ Of the hundreds of Palestinian detainees photographed handcuffed in the Gaza Strip in recent days, about 10-15 percent are Hamas operatives or identified with the group, senior security officials told Haaretz. The IDF admitted that even though it had been necessary to strip them to ensure they weren’t carrying explosives, circulating the photos was needless and humiliating.

“The heating up of two arenas, Yemen and Iraq, could oblige the American administration to closely examine its strategic priorities and to dictate a timetable for the war in Gaza” – Zvi Bar’el

■ 1,593 Israeli soldiers have been wounded during Hamas’ October 7 attack and the subsequent war, 559 since the ground incursion began, according to the IDF.

• The figures were released after Haaretz reported on the IDF’s unusual refusal to provide numbers; it will now give weekly reports on IDF wounded.
• An examination conducted by Haaretz with the hospitals where wounded soldiers were and are being treated shows that the number of IDF wounded is twice as high, or more, than IDF numbers.

■ Security agencies in Cyprus and the Mossad foiled a plan by Iranian terrorists to carry out attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets in Cyprus, the Prime Minister’s Office said on Sunday.

■ The World Health Organization‘s chief said the impact of the war on Gaza’s healthcare sector has been “catastrophic” and conditions were ideal for the spread of deadly diseases. He said it would be impossible for the WHO to improve the situation given the ongoing violence.

■ PM Netanyahu spoke with Russia’s President Vladimir Putinon Sunday, and according to the Israeli readout, criticized Russia’s relationship with Iran and Russia’s “anti-Israel” positions at the UN, while thanking the Kremlin for its efforts to release hostages with dual Russian-Israeli citizenship.

■ Hezbollah claimed responsibility for aircraft infiltration and rocket fire into Israeli territory Sunday morning which wounded multiple soldiers. The IDF said it responded with air strikes on Hezbollah targets.

■ The French Navy said it intercepted two Houthi drones launched from Yemen in the Red Sea earlier on Sunday.

■ Jordan’s Foreign Minister claimed in Doha, Qatar that Israel aims to expel Palestinians from Gaza. An Israeli government spokesperson called the claims “outrageous and false accusations.”

The war comes after ten months of the most significant domestic political and social crisis in decades, due to the Netanyahu-led government’s judicial coup – legislation aimed at dramatically weakening Israel’s judiciary and potentially rescuing Netanyahu from the three corruption trials he faces – and amid an escalation of violence between West Bank Palestinians and Israeli settlers, the latter empowered by Israel’s most right-wing government ever.