Middle East crisis live: Israel claims to have killed Hamas counter-espionage official in airstrike | Middle East and north Africa

Graeme Wearden is in Davos for the Guardian

Asked at Davos whether Jewish lives are more valuable than Muslim and Palestinian Christian lives, given the asymmetry in casualties in the Israel-Hamas war, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said “No. Period.”

The 7 October attack inside southern Israel killed an estimated 1,200 people. Since then, authorities in Gaza have said that nearly 25,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s military response.

Blinken said that for him, and for so many of us, what we are seeing nearly every day in Gaza is gut-wrenching, adding: “The suffering among innocent men, women and children breaks my heart.”

He insisted that the US had pressed Israel about its responsibilities every step of the way, meaning there were “several dogs that did not bark”, but added: “That in no way takes away from the tragedy we have seen and continue to see.”

Blinken said that no country would accept a repeat of the surprise 7 October Hamas attack inside southern Israel, and that it is hard to overstate the psychological impact on Israel of what happened on that day.

The biggest poison we face around the world is dehumanisation, he continued, saying “the inability to see the humanity in the other” was the issue.

We need to remove that poison, he said, which means having leaders around the world who see that, and are prepared to act on it.

US secretary of state Blinken: ‘fierce urgency’ to make progress on Middle East peace

Graeme Wearden

My colleague Graeme Wearden is in Davos for the Guardian, and has been watching US secretary of state Antony Blinken speak:

Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, has said he feels a “fierce urgency” to make progress towards peace in the Middle East region, but that Israel needs to be integrated and feel secure, and there must also be a pathway to a Palestinian state.

In conversation with WEF founder Klaus Schwab, and commentator Thomas Friedman, Blinken said a reformed Palestinian Authority can deliver better for their people and must be part of the solution, but it will need to operate with the support of Israel, not its opposition.

Blinken said “even the most effective” Palestinian Authority will struggle if it has the active opposition of the Israeli government.

Asked whether this is the worst time to be US secretary of state, or just in the top five, Blinken argues that the US is in a “renewed position of strength” under Joe Biden.

He said Biden asked him to reengage with international partners, and that has happened. It means that when dealing with China, and Russia, the world has more convergence than before, he argues.

In the Middle East, we have a profound and gut-wrenching challenge, Blinken continued. He said of what he sees in Gaza “the suffering breaks my heart”.

He said he is hearing from nearly every country that they want the US at the table, and without US leadership, you risk being left with a vacuum, Blinken argued. He said vacuums tend to be filled by bad actors.

Four Palestinians were killed in Israeli shelling in Tulkarm camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Wednesday, Reuters reports the Palestinian Red Crescent said in a statement.

The Palestinian news agency Wafa reports: “Israeli occupation forces detained 85 Palestinians, including 40 workers from the Gaza Strip, across the West Bank in a wide-scale arrest campaign last night and this morning, according to sources.”

24,448 Palestinians have been killed and 61,504 have been wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza since 7 October, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

Reuters reports that the ministry, which is run by Hamas, said 163 Palestinians were killed and 350 wounded in the past 24 hours.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society claims Israeli security forces “prevented” its teams from attending to a vehicle that had been struck near Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank to evacuate wounded people.

In a message posted on social media, without explicitly specifying the source of the gunfire, it also says “gunfire was directed at our teams”.

It wrote:

During the early morning, Israeli occupation forces prevented Palestine Red Crescent ambulance teams from reaching the site of the vehicle that was bombed near Balata camp in Nablus to evacuate the wounded. Gunfire was directed at our teams.

Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that three people were killed near Nablas overnight after an Israeli drone strike. It writes:

Three Palestinians at dawn were killed in an Israeli drone strike targeting a vehicle near Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus.

Sources said that an Israeli drone targeted a vehicle near the Barada Junction near Balata camp, completely burning it and resulting immediately in the killing of three men. Israeli forces prevented medical teams from reaching the place.

The occupying Israeli forces surrounded the vehicle by several military jeeps, during which the occupation forces opened fire on Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance crews and prevented them from reaching the burning vehicle.

Wafa reports that Israel’s security forces “had previously stormed Balata camp accompanied by military vehicles, amid airstrikes and overflights by planes and drones, leading to violent confrontations between the camp’s residents and the occupation forces.”

Israel claims that it has killed a Hamas member who it believes was “responsible for interrogating individuals suspected of espionage” in the southern Gaza Strip.

In its latest operational update, posted to the Telegram messaging app, Israel’s military claimed:

An IAF aircraft eliminated Bilal Nofal, who was responsible for interrogating individuals suspected of carrying out espionage activities against the terrorist organisation in the southern Gaza Strip. Nofal played a role in the advancement of Hamas’ research and development processes. His elimination significantly impacts the terrorist organization’s capacity to develop and enhance its capabilities.

In the update, Israel also claims to have killed five other Hamas operatives in Khan Younis and in Sheikh Ijlin in central Gaza.

It also claims to have destroyed rocket launchers that were used from inside Gaza to attack the Israeli city of Netivot earlier in the week.

The claims have not been independently verified.

It is 9am in Gaza, Tel Aviv and Beirut, and 10.30am in Tehran – here are some of the key events in the last day:

• A deal to allow the delivery of medicines to hostages in Gaza and aid into the territory has been agreed after mediation by Doha and Paris, Qatar and Israel have announced.

• Iran has launched airstrikes on Pakistan territory, apparently aimed at a Sunni militant group, in the latest sign of a wave of violence rolling across the Middle East and beyond.

• American forces have destroyed four anti-ship missiles in Yemen. The US said the missiles threatened civilian and military vessels.

• The attack after the latest attack on Red Sea shipping saw the Houthis hit a Greek-owned cargo ship with a missile off the coast of Yemen as it headed to the Suez canal. No injuries were reported and the vessel remained navigable.

• France says it has not taken part in US-led strikes against the Houthis in Yemen because it wants to avoid a regional escalation.

• The Biden administration is expected to announce plans to redesignate the Houthi rebels in Yemen as specially designated global terrorists, Associated Press reports.

• Japan’s Nippon Yusen says it is joining other major shipping firms in suspending routes through the Red Sea in response to the Houthi attacks on vessels in the vital waterway.

• Aid agencies have begun suspending vital operations in Yemen after the recent US and UK strikes on Houthi targets, amid warnings that further military intervention risks deepening one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

• US Central Command said in a statement on Tuesday that it had seized Iranian advanced conventional weapons bound for Yemen’s Houthis on 11 January. It was the first seizure of “lethal Iranian-supplied advanced conventional weapons” to the Houthis since Houthi attacks against merchant ships began in November, the statement added.

• US Navy Seals boarded a boat heading for Yemen and seized Iranian-made missile components and other weaponry bound for Houthi forces, in an operation in which two Seal commandos went missing, the US military has said.

• Iraq condemned on Tuesday Iran’s “aggression” on Erbil that led to civilian casualties in residential areas, according to a statement by the country’s foreign ministry, after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they attacked Israel’s “spy headquarters” in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.

• A US state department spokesperson has said that an Iranian attack near Iraq’s northern city of Erbil on Monday “undermine Iraq’s stability.” “We oppose Iran’s reckless missile strikes,” Matthew Miller said, adding that the US supported “the government of Iraq and the Kurdistan regional government’s efforts to meet the aspirations of the Iraqi people.”

• Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have also claimed an attack in Syria. The group said it had fired a number of ballistic missiles at “terrorist operations” in the country – including Islamic State targets – and destroyed them. A US defence official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the US tracked the missiles, which hit in northern Iraq and northern Syria, and initial indications were that the strikes were “reckless and imprecise”.

• The Israeli military said on Wednesday its forces have ‘eliminated’ a ‘terrorist cell’ during an airstrike in the Balata camp in the Israeli-occupied city of Nablus, Reuters is reporting.

• The UN secretary of state, António Guterres, has posted on X a few hours ago about his concerns over the war in Gaza and the conflict expanding. He says: “The longer the conflict in Gaza continues, the greater the risk of escalation and miscalculation.” Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, posted a response blaming Iran for the regional instability.

• The United Nations office for the coordination of humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) has released its latest update on the situation in Gaza, saying: “As of 15 January, only one of the three water pipelines from Israel into Gaza is functioning. The Deir al-Balah water pipeline, with a capacity of close to 17,000 cubic metres of water per day, urgently needs repairs.”

• US senators have defeated a measure, introduced by Bernie Sanders, that would have made military aid to Israel conditional on whether the Israeli government is violating human rights and international accords in its devastating war in Gaza.

• The Australian foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has met Israeli relatives of hostages held by Hamas and assured them that she will continue to use Australia’s voice to call for the immediate, unconditional and safe return of all hostages.