Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza
Street battles raged in Gaza city as Israeli tanks met heavy resistance from Hamas fighters, who were staging ambushes using their network of underground tunnels.
The Israeli military said its troops had advanced into the heart of Gaza city but the Palestinian militant group said its fighters had inflicted heavy losses.
The armed wing of Hamas released a video on Wednesday that appeared to show intense street battles alongside bombed out buildings in Gaza city.
Sources with Iran-backed Hamas and their allied Islamic Jihad militant group told Reuters that Hamas fighters were using the tunnels to attack Israeli forces.
Israel struck Gaza in response to a cross-border Hamas raid on southern Israel on October 7 in which gunmen killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and took about 240 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Palestinian officials said 10,569 people had been killed as of Wednesday, 40 per cent of them children. Israel says 33 of its soldiers have been killed.
Six people were killed while others were injured after Israeli missiles struck a house in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip overnight, the Palestinian Interior Ministry said on Thursday.
The US said on Wednesday that a postwar Gaza must be governed by Palestinians after Israeli said it would control security in the enclave indefinitely.
Leaders in Washington have begun discussions with Israeli and Arab leaders over a future for the Gaza Strip without Hamas rule.
“No reoccupation of Gaza after the conflict ends,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday at a press conference in Tokyo.
He said there may be a need for “some transition period” at the end of the conflict but post-crisis governance “must include Palestinian-led governance and Gaza unified with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.”
On Monday, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC News that Israel would, “for an indefinite period”, have security responsibility for the enclave after the war.
Chief Israeli military spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Wednesday that Hamas had lost control in the north of Gaza.
Israel's combat engineers were using explosive devices to destroy Hamas' tunnel network that stretches for hundreds of kilometres beneath Gaza, he said. The military said it had destroyed 130 tunnel shafts so far.
Israel has blamed Hamas for civilian deaths in Gaza, saying that it is using Gazans as human shields and hiding arms and operations centres in residential areas.
Israeli troops took foreign reporters to the edges of Gaza city on Wednesday.
Gaza health collapse
The Gaza Strip is at an increased risk of disease spreading due to Israeli air strikes that have disrupted the health system and access to clean water, and caused people to crowd in shelters, the World Health Organisation warned on Wednesday.
“As deaths and injuries in Gaza continue to rise due to intensified hostilities, intense overcrowding and disrupted health, water and sanitation systems pose an added danger – the rapid spread of infectious diseases,” the WHO said.
“Some worrying trends are already emerging.”
It said that the lack of fuel in the densely populated enclave had caused desalination plants to shut down, which increased the risk of bacterial infections such as diarrhoea spreading.
The WHO said that more than 33,551 cases of diarrhoea had been reported since mid-October, most of which were among children under the age of five.
The lack of fuel has also disrupted the collection of solid waste, which the WHO said created an “environment conducive to the rapid and widespread proliferation of insects and rodents that can carry and transit diseases”.
It said that it was “almost impossible” for health centres to maintain basic infection prevention measures, increasing the risk of infection caused by trauma, surgery and childbirth.
“Disrupted routine vaccination activities, as well as lack of medicines for treating communicable diseases, further increase the risk of accelerated disease spread,” the WHO said.
– Additional reporting by Reuters
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Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
The Buckingham Murders
Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ash Tandon, Prabhleen Sandhu
Director: Hansal Mehta
Rating: 4 / 5
The UN General Assembly President in quotes:
YEMEN: “The developments we have seen are promising. We really hope that the parties are going to respect the agreed ceasefire. I think that the sense of really having the political will to have a peace process is vital. There is a little bit of hope and the role that the UN has played is very important.”
PALESTINE: “There is no easy fix. We need to find the political will and comply with the resolutions that we have agreed upon.”
OMAN: “It is a very important country in our system. They have a very important role to play in terms of the balance and peace process of that particular part of the world, in that their position is neutral. That is why it is very important to have a dialogue with the Omani authorities.”
REFORM OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL: “This is complicated and it requires time. It is dependent on the effort that members want to put into the process. It is a process that has been going on for 25 years. That process is slow but the issue is huge. I really hope we will see some progress during my tenure.”
British Grand Prix free practice times in the third and final session at Silverstone on Saturday (top five):
1. Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes) 1:28.063 (18 laps)
2. Sebastian Vettel (GER/Ferrari) 1:28.095 (14)
3. Valtteri Bottas (FIN/Mercedes) 1:28.137 (20)
4. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN/Ferrari) 1:28.732 (15)
5. Nico Hulkenberg (GER/Renault) 1:29.480 (14)
