• Fourteen countries, including France, Britain, and Germany, condemned Israel's recent approval of more settlements in the occupied West Bank. The countries stressed such unilateral actions “violate international law” and risk undermining the fragile ceasefire in Gaza as mediators push for the implementation of the second phase of the truce. They urged Israel “to reverse this decision, as well as the expansion of settlements”.
  • Israel accused Hamas of breaching the US-backed ceasefire after an explosive device blew up in southern Gaza, injuring an Israeli soldier. Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi said on X that the blast was caused by bombs left behind by the Israeli army. He added that Hamas had informed mediators of this.
  • The Jordanian military launched air strikes against drug smuggling networks in southern Syria, Syrian state media said. State broadcaster Al Ikhbariya reported that the Jordanian army targeted "drug smuggling networks and storage farms in the southern and eastern countryside" of Sweida.
  • Syrian security forces, with the support of a US-led coalition, have arrested the ISIS leader for Damascus in an operation to the south-west of the capital, authorities announced on Thursday.
  • The Vatican’s Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, told worshippers at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem that suffering in Gaza endures despite a halt in Israel's war, but hope is still present.
  • The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized a ship carrying 4 million litres of smuggled fuel in the Arabian Gulf, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
  • Sudan’s army-backed government has detained “hundreds” in a new phase of its crackdown on anti-war activists, a leading opposition figure has told The National.
  • The UAE has delivered critical medical care to 75,000 Gazans and evacuated 3,000 more patients and their families for treatment in the country under a multibillion-dirham aid mission.
  • Signs of Christmas are more visible than ever across Iraq this year, but the needs of its small Christian minority have been overlooked, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church has said. The government needs to do more to protect Christians and ensure they have equal rights, Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako told The National.
  • Gaza ceasefire mediators hold talks in Cairo
  • Israeli cabinet meeting

This newsletter was compiled by Mohamad Ali Harisi, Foreign Editor.

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