Israel’s Supreme Court strikes down key part of Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul

Israel removing some units from Gaza to prepare for long war, prevent economic damage

Josh Lederman

TEL AVIV — Israel says five of its military brigades, including many reservists, will be withdrawing from the Gaza Strip this week in an effort to pace itself for an expected long-term conflict and to mitigate damage to Israel’s economy.

The Israeli Defense Forces said the 828th Brigade, 261st Brigade and 460th Brigade, composed of active duty troops, will all return to their normal training missions. The 551st Brigade and 14th Brigade, comprising reservists, will be allowed to go home and to resume their normal jobs, the IDF said.  

Yet the military took pains to signal that the withdrawal of those brigades did not signal an end to active, intensive combat in Gaza or any reduction in Israel’s mission there. Israel has been under intense global pressure to scale back the war but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a national address over the weekend that the war would continue for “many more months.” 

“The goals of the war require prolonged fighting and we are preparing accordingly,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari told reporters. 

Red Crescent says it established first organized camp in Khan Younis

The Red Crescent aid organization said today that it established the first organized camp for displaced people in the city of Khan Younis, Gaza’s second largest and target of recent Israeli military operations.

It’s been set up with around 300 people — mostly aid workers, ambulance crews and other personnel and their families — the organization said, but there are plans to expand it to 1,000 people.

Khan Younis, in the south of Gaza, came under assault by Israeli military forces last month.

The United Nations relief agency UNRWA said in a situation report Sunday that since the Oct. 7 terror attacks against Israel and the war that followed, up to 1.9 million people in Gaza have been displaced. That number would be 85% of the population of Gaza.

Thousands of cancer patients in Gaza are out of medication and losing hope, hospital says

Thousands of cancer patients trapped in Gaza by the fighting between Hamas and Israel have run out of medications to treat their illnesses, the head of the Palestinian territory’s only cancer hospital said.

“We have ten thousand cancer patients in dire and inhumane conditions,” said Dr. Subhi Skaik, director of the Al-Sadaqa Turkish-Palestinian hospital, which was forced to shut down after the Israelis invaded. “We do not have any type of medicine to treat cancer in the Gaza Strip.”

Skaik, at a news conference, said “more than 2,200 referrals were made for cancer patients for treatment abroad, and a number of them traveled to some sister countries.”

“We call on the free world to stop the aggression, expedite the departure of patients, and ensure the provision of treatment,” Skaik said.

Israel announces plan to withdraw some units from Gaza

The Israeli military has announced plans to begin pulling thousands of soldiers from Gaza as part of their repositioning for a long-term conflict.

Hamas says plans of removing Palestinians from Gaza are ‘just daydreams’

Hamas said a right-wing Israeli minister’s calls for removing Palestinians from Gaza were “just daydreams.”

“The statements of the occupation leaders about displacing our people from Gaza are just daydreams that will be thwarted by our people with their steadfastness and valiant resistance,” the militant group said in a statement on its Telegram channel translated by NBC News.

Hamas was reacting to an earlier statement by Israeli far-right national security minister Ben Gvir, who called for promoting the “migration of Gaza residents.”

Gvir, who is part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling coalition, has endorsed the rebuilding of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip that the Israelis voluntarily abandoned nearly two decades ago.

Israel’s Supreme Court rules it has power to review laws, intervene when Legislature oversteps its authority

In a blow to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the Israeli Supreme Court said today that it has the power to intervene when the Legislature exceeds its authority.

With a 12 out of 15 majority, the Supreme Court ruled it can strike down a law that deviates from the constitutional mandate of the Knesset.

Netanyahu’s overhaul and weakening of the Supreme Court deeply divided Israel earlier in 2023. Some military reservists said they would stop volunteering in protest. The overhaul has been on hold since the Oct. 7 terror attacks by Hamas and subsequent war against the group launched by Israel in response.

The Supreme Court ruled that it has the authority to conduct judicial review of basic laws, and to intervene in exceptional and extreme cases where the Knesset exceeded its founding authority. Some judges cited the power of the country’s Declaration of Independence as a basis for its judicial review.

Israel’s Supreme Court strikes down key part of Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul

Israel’s Supreme Court struck down a key component of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul.

The court narrowly voted to overturn a law passed in July that prevents judges from striking down government decisions they deem “unreasonable.”

Opponents had argued that Netanyahu’s efforts to remove the standard of reasonability opens the door to corruption and improper appointments of unqualified cronies to important positions.

Israel National Security Minister Ben Gvir criticized the decision “a dangerous, anti-democratic” decision. “The High Court’s ruling is illegal, and includes the annulment of a basic law in a precedent manner, in the absence of a source of legal authority,” he wrote on social media platform X.

Injured Palestinian child treated at Gaza hospital

Matthew Nighswander

A child receives treatment today at Aksa Hospital in Deir al Balah, central Gaza.

Death toll in Gaza rises to nearly 22,000

The death toll in Gaza was nearing 22,000 and some 70% of the fatalities are women and children, a Gaza Ministry of Health spokesperson reported Monday.

As of New Year’s Day, the number of fatalities climbed to 21,978 and 56,697 people have been wounded in the 87 days since the Israelis invaded the Palestinian territory, the spokesperson, Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra, said on the ministry’s Telegram channel.

Among those dead were 326 “health personnel,” the spokesperson said in the latest ministry update, which was translated by NBC News.

Israeli forces “deliberately targeted 150 health institutions, leaving 30 hospitals and 53 health centers out of service in all areas of the Gaza Strip, Al-Qudra said.

The Israelis launched the offensive after Hamas militants ignited the latest war with a bloody Oct. 7 surprise attack that left around 1,200 dead. They have accused Hamas of using Palestinian civilians as human shields and hiding military installations under hospitals.

Mourners at soldier’s funeral in Tel Aviv

Matthew Nighswander

Mourners during a funeral for Staff Sgt. Maj. Constantine Sushko today in Tel Aviv. According the Israel Defense Forces, Sushko was killed while fighting in Gaza on Saturday.

Far-right Israeli minister calls for promotion of ‘migration’ of Gazans

Israeli far-right national security minister Ben Gvir called for promoting the “migration of Gaza residents,” saying it is a “human solution.”

In a post on X today he wrote: “Encouraging the migration of the residents of Gaza will allow us to bring home the residents of the area around Gaza and the residents of Gush Katif.”

Israel-Hamas tensions threaten shipping routes in Red Sea

Josh Lederman

Tensions between Israel and Hamas have spread to the Red Sea, threatening one of the world’s most important shipping routes. NBC’s Josh Lederman reports for TODAY.

Qatari planes carrying humanitarian aid arrive in Egypt

Three Qatari planes carrying 135 tons of aid have landed at Egypt’s Al-Arish Airport, the Qatari Foreign Ministry said in a statement on X.

Since Israel’s siege of the enclave, only a few dozen trucks of aid are being let into Gaza daily, a fraction of what used to enter before the war broke out.

More than 30 people arrested in the West Bank, prisoners’ rights group says

At least 32 people have been arrested in the occupied West Bank in the last 24 hours, the Commission for the Affairs of Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners and the Palestinian Prisoners Club in Ramallah said in a statement today.

“The arrests were concentrated in the town of Qatana/Jerusalem, affecting at least 12 citizens, a group of whom were later released, including a woman who was detained by the occupation as a hostage,” read the statement.

Israeli forces have detained dozens of Palestinians almost every day since the Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, with the tally reaching 4,910 according to the figures by the organization.

“The occupation forces continue to carry out widespread raids and harassment during arrest campaigns, severe beatings, and threats against detainees and their families,” the statement added.

Iran’s Alborz warship enters Red Sea, news agency reports

An Iranian warship has entered the Red Sea, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency has reported, a day after the United States exchanged fire with Iran-backed Houthi boats in the strategic body of water.

Tasnim reported that the Alborz, a destroyer-class ship, had passed through the Bab al-Mandab Strait that separates the Arabian Peninsula from Africa and marks the sea’s southern entrance.

The agency said that Iranian warships have been operating in the region “to secure shipping lanes since 2009,” according to a translation by Reuters.

The news comes hours after U.S. helicopters exchanged fire with Iran-backed Houthi crews in small boats, sinking three of the vessels, following distress calls received from a commercial containership.

Kibbutz confirms the death of a 56-year-old man

Ilan Weiss, 56, who was believed to be missing since Oct. 7, when Hamas launched a multipronged attack on Israel, is believed to be dead, the Kibbutz Be’eri, where he lived, said in a statement today.

“It is believed he was murdered,” the kibbutz said.

IDF: 18 soldiers have been killed in Gaza due to friendly fire

The Israel Defense Forces said today that 18 of its soldiers were killed as a result of friendly fire during its ground operations.

A total of 170 soldiers have been killed so far, it said, with 29 of those deaths resulting from accidents. Two of the deaths were due to “shooting irregularities,” it added.

Another nine deaths were a result of accidents linked to “ammunition, weapons and trampling,” it added.

IDF continues ground operation inside Gaza

Sirens sound as Hamas launches rocket barrage on Tel Aviv

Sirens were sounded in central and southern Israel around midnight as Hamas’ military-wing the Qassam brigades said it had launched a barrage of rockets onto Tel Aviv.

“We bombed the city of ‘Tel Aviv’ and its suburbs with a barrage of ‘M90’ rockets,” the group said in a post on Telegram.

Baby foods and vaccines return to Gaza Strip, health officials say

Baby food purchased by the Palestinian government and some donated by UNICEF has begun entering the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, the Health Ministry in Ramallah said in a statement on Telegram.

It also said Egypt had preserved the food in cold storage until it was handed over to Gaza.

The supply includes children’s vaccines for polio and measles, the ministry said, adding they are sufficient for 8 to 14 months.

IDF says it struck targets in Gaza, killed senior Hamas commander

The Israel Defense Forces said it killed Adil Mismah, a top commander in Deir al-Balah, and destroyed targets in Shejaiya in Gaza City today.

The IDF conducted a “targeted raid on the terrorist organizations’ command and control center and located large quantities of weapons used by the terrorist organizations in the area of a mosque,” it said in a statement.

An Israeli aircraft also struck a militant launching rockets in Khan Younis, the IDF said, adding it separately attacked a unit launching mortar shells.

IDF is preparing for a year of war in Gaza

In a New Year’s Eve address, the top spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces warned that the war in Gaza would require “prolonged fighting” and “warfare throughout this year.”

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said: “We are wisely planning the management of the forces operating in the field, looking at the reserve system, the economy, refreshing forces, and continuing the combat training processes in the IDF.”

He also gave details of recent operations against Palestinian militants in the strip, and said that some reservists would return to their families this week.

He said this would “significantly ease the burden on the economy and allow them to gather strength for the upcoming activities in the next year, as the fighting will continue and they will still be required.”

Thousands join New Year’s Day demonstration in Turkey to denounce Israel’s Gaza campaign

Tens of thousands gathered in Istanbul, Turkey, today to show solidarity with the Palestinian people amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group in the Gaza enclave.

People gathered around the Galata Bridge in Istanbul to denounce the “terrorism” of both Israel and the banned Kurdish group PKK, the official Turkish agency Anadolu said.

Survivors of deadly Khan Younis air strike treated in Gaza hospital as they mourn dead relatives

Mohamad al-Laham, a survivor of a deadly airstrike attack in Khan Younis that killed dozens, told an NBC News crew that he believes the majority of his family was among those killed.

Destruction in Gaza on New Year’s Day

A Palestinian woman stands amid rubble and belongings in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on New Year’s Day, after Israel’s military said fighting would continue throughout 2024.