European Countries Seek Additional Hamas Sanctions

Facts

• France, Germany, and Italy called on Monday for the EU to set up a special sanctions scheme to target Hamas, weighing the possibility of targeting Hamas's finances and travel bans for Israeli settlers responsible for violence in the West Bank. Hamas is already listed by the EU as a terrorist group, and the foreign ministers did not provide details regarding what would change. ¹
• After a weekend of intense street battles, Israel has continued to advance into the urban centers throughout the Gaza Strip, in particular in the city of Khan Younis in the south. Despite Israel's gains on the ground, it has failed to completely prevent rocket fire from Gaza into Israel and rocket fire has also continued from Lebanon. So far, Israel has officially announced the loss of 104 of its soldiers, with another 582 soldiers being injured since the start of the ground war. ²
• Over the weekend, Israel released footage that it claims shows Hamas fighters surrendering on-mass and handing over their weapons. Dozens of men can be seen standing in their underwear, many of them with their arms aloft and holding identity cards in Beit Lahia in the north of the strip. Whether the men in the footage were actually Hamas fighters — or how many of the total men videoed were Hamas fighters — is currently unverified, and dynamics within the footage are being analyzed by outlets such as the BBC.³
• Despite international pressure for Israel to either lighten its military campaign in Gaza or even end it, Israeli officials have continued to indicate that they seek to continue the offensive until Hamas's leadership is destroyed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday “You can’t support the elimination of Hamas on the one hand, and pressure us to end the war, which would prevent Hamas’s elimination.” On Friday, the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have called for an immediate ceasefire.⁴
• The humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to worsen, as most of the strip's residents have been crammed into a small amount of space near the Egyptian border. Hunger is becoming rampant as food prices skyrocket and civilians are also dying of cold. Jordan accused Israel of attempting to force Palestinians out of Gaza and into Egypt, an accusation that an Israeli spokesman called "outrageous and false."⁵
• Gaza's health ministry reports that the conflict has left over 18K people in the Gaza Strip dead, many of whom it claims are children. The official Israeli death toll stands at 1.2K people and there are still over 100 hostages being held in the Gaza Strip. ⁶

Sources: ¹Reuters (a), ² Guardian, ³BBC News, ⁴New York Times, ⁵Reuters (b) and ⁶CNN.

Narratives

• Pro-Israel narrative, as provided by Jerusalen Post. Though this has been a tragic war, Israel cannot allow Hamas to survive. Hamas seized upon last week's temporary pause to mark Israeli positions and prepare itself for continued attacks on Israeli forces in Gaza. Indeed, the pace at which Israeli forces maneuvered in Gaza threw Hamas's military leadership off-kilter, and Israel will have to work intelligently in its campaign in the south of the strip to fully eliminate the terrorist group so it can never launch an attack like Oct. 7 again.
• Pro-Palestine narrative, as provided by Middle East Eye. Israel continues to demonstrate that its war is not against Hamas but against the Palestinian people as a whole. Nowhere in Gaza is safe, and Israel has effectively rendered the north of the strip unlivable. Unfortunately, the temporary ceasefire only gave civilians a few days of relative rest, and now Israel has returned to killing Palestinians at an unprecedented rate. The US, Israel's biggest ally, must exert more pressure to end the war.
• Nerd narrative, as provided by Metaculus. There's a 54% chance that Israel will have de facto power in the Gaza Strip on Jan. 1, 2025, according to the Metaculus prediction community.