1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ HOSTAGES 🎗️Day 437🎗️/

• Sources involved in the negotiations over the release of hostages in Gaza tell Haaretz that the final number of hostages to be freed as part of the humanitarian phase of the deal remains uncertain. An agreement could be finalized in the coming weeks. https://lnk.sk/ibzx  
• “We spoke about the need to complete Israel’s victory and we spoke a lot about our efforts to free the hostages,” prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday about phone call with US President-elect Donald Trump https://lnk.sk/szkl 

SYRIA 🇸🇾 /

• Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirms the US has engaged in direct communication with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Syrian rebel group now holding de-facto control of the country and which was designated a terrorist organization by Washington. https://lnk.sk/ftk3 
• Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq have condemned Israel’s move to expand settlements in the Golan Heights. Netanyahu has expressed a desire to double the population of the Golan after Israel’s north suffered over a year of devastation due to the war. https://lnk.sk/cehb
• U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that Israel had a right to defend itself against risks to its security from Syria. „What Israel is doing is trying to identify potential threats that could threaten Israel and, frankly, threaten others as well,“ Sullivan said. https://lnk.sk/rjnp
• Israel has carried out multiple strikes on missile and weapon depots in the Syrian port city of Tartus. Residents had felt a 3-magnitude earthquake on the Richter scale. https://lnk.sk/jcdm ; https://lnk.sk/tor5    

IRAN 🇮🇷 /

• An updated design of Iran’s Fordo plant showed that the effect of the change „would be to significantly increase the rate of production of uranium enriched up to 60%,“ an International Atomic Energy Agency said. Production will jump to more than 34 kg. of highly enriched uranium per month, compared to 4.7 kg. previously. https://lnk.sk/lfo2

GAZA, HEZBOLLAH in LIBANON, JUDEA & SAMARIA (so-called West Bank) / 

• In depth analysis of Gaza fatality statistics has proven the numbers are EXTREMELY faked, with issues such as: 1. Misclassified Genders: Men are recorded as women to inflate female fatalities. Example: Men with male names like „Mohammed“ listed as female. 2. Adults Listed as Children: Adults are misclassified as children to increase child fatality counts. Example: A 22-year-old listed as a 4-year-old and a 31-year-old listed as an infant. 3. Natural Deaths Included in War Casualties: Natural deaths, like cancer patients, are included in war-related fatality lists.  Gaza has an annual average of 5,000 natural deaths, but they aren’t accounted for separately. 4. Combatant Deaths Portrayed as Civilian Casualties:  Over 17,000 Hamas combatants are estimated to have died, but most media outlets portray all deaths as civilian casualties.
• The IDF is continuing to dismantle rocket launch sites in both Gaza and southern Lebanon. In southern Lebanon, soldiers discovered a large weapons store, including Kornet missile launchers, AK-47 rifles, magazines, and missiles hidden in dense, mountainous terrain.    
• In Gaza, IDF troops dismantled a rocket launch site in Beit Lahia with three underground multi-barrel launchers loaded with rockets. In Rafah, IDF troops located tunnel shafts and eliminated terrorists. https://lnk.sk/hycq 
• The Palestinian Preventive Security forces launched a large-scale counterterror crackdown in the West Bank’s Jenin, Tulkarm and Nablus refugee camps last Sunday. It is the most extensive action against Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives in years. https://lnk.sk/vzu1   

ISRAEL 🇮🇱 /

• Israel has raised concerns that rebel advances in Syria could embolden extremist elements in Jordan, threatening the stability of King Abdullah’s regime. https://lnk.sk/hva9
• The government’s efforts to revive its judicial overhaul program and fire the attorney general are reckless behavior that endangers the security of the state, former war cabinet minister Benny Gantz declares, calling on Justice Minister Yariv Levin to back down. https://lnk.sk/hnvt 
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is leading Israel “into a civil war,” hawkish opposition politician Avigdor Liberman alleges during his Yisrael Beytenu party’s weekly faction meeting in the Knesset. https://lnk.sk/rzas 

Sources: Israel National News Arutz Sheva, CNN, AFP, Haaretz, KAN News, Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post and the sources cited directly in some reports

©️ ICEJ Slovakia; peter.svec@icej.sk