WATCH: Democracy Now! | U.S. Firms Eye "Massive Amount of Money" to Be Made from Gaza Reconstruction Under TrumpMaersk says vessel navigated Red Sea for first time in almost 2 yearsShipping giant Maersk has said one of its vessels had successfully navigated the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb Strait for the first time in nearly two years.
The Danish company said that while it had no firm plans to fully reopen the key Asia-Europe trade corridor, it would take a “stepwise approach towards gradually resuming navigation” via the Suez Canal and the Red Sea.
Maersk declined to further elaborate on its plans.
Major shipping companies rerouted vessels around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope from December 2023 after Yemen’s Houthi forces announced they would attack ships in the Red Sea in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
(anon's note: Yemen has stopped attacking shipping since the October ceasefire agreement)The Suez Canal is the fastest route linking Europe and Asia and until the attacks had accounted for about 10 percent of global seaborne trade, according to Clarksons Research.
Deregistration of NGOs under new Israeli rules ‘will have catastrophic impact on Gaza services’New rules in Israel for registering NGOs, under which more than a dozen groups have already been rejected, could have a catastrophic impact on aid work in Gaza and the West Bank, relief workers have warned.
The NGOs have until December 31 to register under the new framework, which Israel says aims to prevent “hostile actors or supporters of terrorism”.
Requests are rejected for “organisations involved in terrorism, antisemitism, delegitimisation of Israel, Holocaust denial, denial of the crimes of October 7,” Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism told AFP.
The ministry said 14 out of 100 registration requests have been rejected since November.
The Humanitarian Country Team of the Occupied Palestinian Territory warned that dozens of groups face deregistration and that, while some had been registered, “these NGOs represent only a fraction of the response in Gaza and are nowhere near the number required just to meet immediate and basic needs”.
“The deregistration of NGOs in Gaza will have a catastrophic impact on access to essential and basic services,” it said.
The amount of aid entering Gaza remains inadequate. While the ceasefire agreement stipulated the entry of 600 trucks per day, only 100 to 300 are carrying humanitarian aid, according to NGOs and the UN.
The
NGOs barred under the new rules include Save the Children, one of the best known and oldest in Gaza, where it helps 120,000 children, and
the American Friends Service Committee.They are being given 60 days to withdraw all their international staff from the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank and Israel, and will no longer be able to deliver any aid.
Top Hamas official says Miami talks must end ‘ongoing Israeli lawlessness’Bassem Naim has said the talks in Miami must aim to end Israeli ceasefire violations in Gaza.
“Our people expect these talks to result in an agreement to put an end to ongoing Israeli lawlessness, halt all violations and compel the occupation to abide by the Sharm El-Sheikh agreement,” the Hamas political bureau member told AFP.
During the second stage, Israel is supposed to withdraw from its positions in Gaza, an interim authority is to govern the Palestinian territory instead of Hamas, and an international stabilisation force is to be deployed.
Naim said the new talks should also boost the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
He told the news agency the discussions should address how to implement the plan in a way to ensure “sustainable stability, launches a comprehensive reconstruction process and paves the way for a political track enabling Palestinians to govern themselves, culminating in a fully sovereign and independent state”.
IPC says Gaza no longer experiencing famine, warns situation ‘highly fragile’The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global hunger monitor, has said there is no longer famine in Gaza after access for humanitarian and commercial food deliveries improved following the start of the fragile ceasefire in October.
The IPC, however, warned that the situation in Gaza remains critical.
“Under a worst-case scenario, which would include renewed hostilities and a halt in humanitarian and commercial inflows, the entire Gaza Strip [would be] at risk of famine through mid-April 2026. This underscores the severe and ongoing humanitarian crisis,” the monitor said in a report.
It added that more than 100,000 people in Gaza were experiencing catastrophic conditions, but projected that figure to decline to about 1,900 people by April 2026. It said the entire Gaza Strip was classified in an emergency phase, one step below catastrophic conditions.
“The situation remains highly fragile and is contingent on sustained, expanded and consistent humanitarian and commercial access,” the IPC said.
The latest assessment by the monitor comes four months after it reported that 514,000 people – nearly a quarter of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip – were experiencing famine.
Israel controls all access to the besieged enclave, with international aid organisations stating that Israel has allowed far fewer than 600 trucks a day, in violation of the ceasefire.
Severe hunger still plagues Gaza, warns Islamic ReliefThe IPC’s new report on hunger in Gaza shows that “nowhere near enough” aid is getting into the Strip since the ceasefire was announced, says international aid organisation Islamic Relief.
“There has been some fragile improvement to address the famine, but acute malnutrition is still at critical levels in many areas of Gaza and half a million people are still suffering severe hunger as winter sets in,” the organisation said in a statement.
Malnourished children are not getting care due to a shortage of essential medical supplies, food remains unaffordable – if it is available, and the rate of aid coming in is insufficient to due Israeli’s blockade, said Islamic Relief.
“Islamic Relief warns a return to famine remains a real threat in the coming months, unless there is renewed commitment to a full and lasting ceasefire, greater humanitarian access, and progress on rebuilding services, livelihoods and the economy,” the organisation said.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/12/19/live-gaza-ceasefire-mediators-to-hold-talks-on-second-phaseCeasefire talks in Miami: What to knowThe United States Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, will hold talks in Miami, Florida, with senior officials from Qatar, Egypt and Turkiye as efforts continue to advance the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire, even as Israel repeatedly violates the truce on the ground.
A White House official told Al Jazeera Arabic on Friday that Witkoff is set to meet representatives from the three countries to discuss the future of the agreement aimed at halting Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
Axios separately reported that the meeting, scheduled for later on Friday, will include Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty.
At the same time, Israel’s public broadcaster, quoting an Israeli official, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is holding a restricted security consultation to examine the second phase of the ceasefire and potential scenarios.
That official warned that Israel could launch a new military campaign to disarm Hamas if US President Donald Trump were to disengage from the Gaza process, while acknowledging that such a move was unlikely because Trump wants to preserve calm in the enclave.
read more about the talks here:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12/19/us-to-host-qatari-turkish-and-egyptian-officials-for-gaza-ceasefire-talks