The Times of Israel is liveblogging Saturday’s events as they unfold.
Heavy fighting reported in southern Gaza overnight after truce breakdown
Israel’s military was carrying out extensive operations against Hamas and other terror groups in Gaza overnight, and heavy fighting is reported in the southern part of the Palestinian enclave, according to Hebrew-language media.
Extensive battles are reported in the Khan Younis area, according to Channel 12, amid intelligence that some of Hamas’s leadership was present in the city.
Earlier, Israel carried out strikes in Khan Younis and Rafah, also in southern Gaza.
Gazans reported the IDF had dropped flyers in Khan Younis calling on residents to move south to Rafah, warning the area is dangerous.
The IDF earlier published a map splitting the Gaza Strip into hundreds of small zones, which it will use to notify Palestinian civilians of active combat zones.
It asked Palestinians to pay attention to their area’s number, and follow the IDF’s future updates.
The military may use this map to call on Palestinians from specific areas to evacuate when the IDF’s ground offensive expands to the Strip’s south, instead of demanding mass evacuations as it did in the northern part of Gaza.
“The IDF is operating strongly against terror organizations, while making great efforts to differentiate between civilians and terrorists,” the military said in a message to Gazans.
“The people of Gaza are not our enemies. For this reason, as of this morning the IDF is leading controlled and specific evacuations of Gaza residents in order to remove them as much as possible from areas of combat.”
Syrian military official: Israeli strikes near Damascus overnight result in ‘material losses’
DAMASCUS — Israeli airstrikes hit several points on the outskirts of Damascus overnight, Syrian state media reported, resulting in some damage.
State news agency SANA, citing an unnamed military official, says the strikes came from the direction of the Golan Heights and that Syrian air defenses shot most of the missiles down. The strikes resulted in only “material losses,” the statement says.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based opposition war monitor, says the strikes hit in the area of the south Damascus suburb of Sayyida Zeinab, where it said that “there are military forces working with the Lebanese Hezbollah,” the terror group backed by Iran.
It said ambulances rushed to the scene.
Alleged #IAF ???????? airstrikes on Damascus, #Syria ????????
Air defense activity has been reported pic.twitter.com/dSf8zSrikx— Aleph א (@no_itsmyturn) December 1, 2023
Israel has struck targets in Syria several times since the onset of the Hamas-Israel war on October 7, when terrorists killed 1,200 people in Israel and took some 240 hostages.
On Sunday, a reported Israeli airstrike hit the international airport in Damascus and put it out of commission, just hours after the airport resumed flights following a monthlong hiatus after a previous Israeli strike.
Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes inside government-controlled parts of war-torn Syria in recent years, often targeting Hezbollah and other terror groups backed by Iran, but it rarely acknowledges or discusses the operations.
Israeli jets strike targets in Damascus area, Syrian state media reports
A Syrian military source is cited by state media as saying that Israel carried out airstrikes on targets near the Syrian capital of Damascus.
The source tells the SANA official news agency that at “around 1:35 a.m. today, the Israeli enemy carried out an air attack” from the direction of the Golan Heights, “targeting some sites in the vicinity of the city of Damascus.”
Hezbollah claims responsibility for rocket fired at northern Israeli community; no injuries reported
Lebanese terror group Hezbollah claims responsibility for firing a Katyusha rocket from southern Lebanon at the northern Israeli community of Dishon tonight, Ynet reports.
There are no reports of injuries or damage. Sirens sounded in Dishon, close to the Lebanon border, earlier.
Channel 12 reports that several impact sites were observed in unpopulated areas.
Protester with Palestinian flag self-immolates outside Israeli consulate in Atlanta
A protester with a Palestinian flag set herself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta, local police say.
The protester is in critical condition after a security guard at the scene intervened. The guard was also burned in the process, and his condition is not immediately known, police say.
“We believe that was an act of extreme political protest,” Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum says during a press conference.
The protester arrived at the building that houses the Israeli consulate and several other businesses and used gasoline to self-immolate, Schierbaum says.
“We believe this building remains safe, and we do not see any threat here,” he adds.
The FBI’s Atlanta office says it was coordinating with local law enforcement on the matter.
#DEVELOPING: ATF, FBI, and APD on scene of an incident outside the Israeli Consulate General building in Atlanta, Georgia, that has left two people injured.
Burnt items are seen at the scene. Circumstances unclear as of now. pic.twitter.com/vuy0Us7QBK
— Moshe Schwartz (@YWNReporter) December 1, 2023