Ukrainian forces claim ‘significant’ casualties among North Koreans in Kursk
Yao Dawei/Xinhua via Getty Images
(LONDON) — The Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Directorate of Intelligence said on Monday that at least 30 North Korean soldiers were killed and wounded in weekend battles in Russia’s western Kursk region, prompting commanders to send reinforcements to frontline units.
“North Korean army units are being re-equipped after losses in assaults” around the villages of Plekhovo, Vorozhba and Martynovka in the Kursk region, the GUR wrote in a post to its official Telegram channel.
On Dec. 14 and 15, the GUR said, “units of the DPRK army suffered significant losses — at least 30 soldiers were killed and wounded,” using the acronym for the country’s official name of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
At least three North Korean troops went missing around the village of Kurilovka in Kursk, the post added.
“Due to losses, the assault groups are being replenished with fresh personnel, in particular from the 94th separate brigade of the DPRK army, to continue active combat operations in the area,” the GUR wrote.
Pyongyang is believed to have sent up to 12,000 troops to Russia in recent months, according to a November briefing by Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder. Their focus is believed to be the Kursk region of western Russia, where Ukrainian forces seized ground in a surprise August offensive.
Sources told ABC News in November that North Koreans may be among the approximately 50,000 troops being readied for a significant counteroffensive in Kursk.
Russian leaders have said they will not consider any peace talks while Kursk remains partially occupied, though officials in Kyiv frame their retention of Russian territory as important negotiating leverage.
North Korea’s provision of troops marked a new level of cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang. The two neighbors have drawn closer since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with North Korea already providing Moscow with artillery munitions and ballistic missiles.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Kyiv has “preliminary data that the Russians have begun to use North Korean soldiers in their assaults — a significant number of them.”
“The Russians include them in combined units and use them in operations in the Kursk region,” Zelenskyy said in a statement posted to his Telegram page. “So far, only there. But we have information suggesting their use could extend to other parts of the frontline. There are also already noticeable losses in this category.”
“We will defend ourselves, including against these North Koreans,” Zelenskyy added. “And we will continue to act in coordination with all our partners to stop this war — to stop it decisively, with guaranteed peace.”
(LONDON) — Israeli strikes killed at least 86 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip since the announcement of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas on Wednesday, Gaza’s Civil Defence body in the Hamas-run territory said.
More than 250 other people were injured in Israeli attacks, they added.
The strikes came despite the ceasefire agreement announced on Wednesday after weeks of intense negotiations in Doha, Qatar. The final round of talks followed more than a year of failed efforts to reach an accord.
The first of three ceasefire phases is set to go into force on Sunday, though is still pending approval by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet. If the first is successful, the second phase will begin after 42 days, according to Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who announced the deal in Doha.
On Thursday, Netanyahu’s office accused Hamas of trying to renege on parts of the deal, an allegation Hamas denied, saying in a statement that “The organization is committed to the ceasefire agreement announced by the mediators.”
Mediators hope the nascent ceasefire will form a roadmap to end more than 15 months of conflict in Gaza, which has devastated the Palestinian territory and created a vast humanitarian crisis.
Gaza Health Ministry officials said Thursday that at least 46,788 Palestinians had been killed and 110,453 injured in the strip since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a terrorist attack on southern Israel.
Some 1,200 people in Israel were killed in the attack, with 253 more taken hostage by militants, according to Israeli officials. Following several rounds of hostage releases, Israeli officials say 94 abductees remain in Gaza, including 34 who have been confirmed dead. Four more hostages abducted in 2014 are still being held in Gaza by Hamas, two of whom are believed to be alive.
More than 400 Israeli soldiers and security personnel have been killed during the fighting inside Gaza, nine of whom were killed in the past week, the IDF said.
The Israel Defense Forces claims to have killed more than 15,000 Hamas fighters and other militants throughout the course of the war. Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh, Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif were among those killed since October 2023.
ABC News’ Samy Zyara, Diaa Ostaz, Nasser Atta, Meredith Deliso, Somayeh Malekian and Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The ceasefire and hostage release deal announced Wednesday between Israel and Hamas marks a major political and personal victory for President Joe Biden in his final days in office.
“It’s a very good afternoon,” Biden said as he approached the podium in the Cross Hall of the White House to talk about the agreement, which comes after a devastating 15-month conflict that has subsumed the Middle East.
Biden was flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken as he laid out the work he and his administration’s done to get to this point.
“The elements of this deal were what I laid out in detail this past May, which was embraced by countries around the world and endorsed overwhelmingly by the UN Security Council,” Biden said.
Biden, whose career in politics spans five decades, said the negotiations he was personally involved in for more than a year were the “toughest” he’d ever experienced.
But President-elect Donald Trump is also seeking credit and was first to release a statement on the deal.
“This EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November, as it signaled to the entire World that my Administration would seek Peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans, and our Allies,” Trump wrote on his social media platform as news broke earlier Wednesday.
Trump had previously threatened “all hell will break out” if a deal wasn’t struck by the time he was sworn into office. “It will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone,” Trump warned.
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, was in the region with Biden’s team to get the deal done, according to a senior administration official.
Witkoff told Israeli news outlet N12 on Wednesday that the Israel-Hamas deal was achieved because of the help of many and demonstrates the success of what he called Trump’s policy of peace through strength.
Biden noted in his remarks that the terms of the ceasefire agreement will largely be carried out under the incoming Trump administration, and that it is his hope they take the “real opportunity for the Middle East.”
“I told my team to coordinate closely with the incoming team to make sure we’re all speaking with the same voice, because that’s what American presidents do,” Biden said.
But as he walked away, Biden appeared to brush off the role Trump played when asked by a reporter who should get credit for the deal five days before he would leave office and Trump takes over.
“Is that a joke?” Biden responded.
Biden administration officials walked through the long timeline of negotiations, starting with Biden’s framework last May that prompted a summer of “intensive negotiations.” Those talks, however, came to a halt on Aug. 31 when Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages were found dead in Rafah.
One of the key issues had been how many hostages Hamas had, which the official said they did not want to share for much of the past few months.
Since Jan. 5, the official said, negotiators have been in the region nailing down specifics including the complex details like “redeployment of Israeli forces, what Hamas must do, humanitarian provisions and the sequence of releasing hostages and releasing a number of Palestinian prisoners.”
The official added this phase of talks has been “very intense” and came together over the past 96 or so hours.
President Biden held a series of calls over the last few days with key brokers in the region, the official stressed, including Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani of Qatar and President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt.
“You know, there was no other way for this war to end than with a hostage deal, and I’m deeply satisfied this day has come, finally come, for the sake of the people of Israel and the families waiting in agony,” Biden said.
“And for the sake of the innocent people in Gaza who suffered unimaginable devastation because of the war,” he continued. “The Palestinian people have gone through hell. Too many innocent people have died. Too many communities have been destroyed. And this deal, the people of Gaza can finally recover and rebuild. They can look to a future without Hamas in power.”
ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — The ceasefire in Lebanon is holding despite ongoing Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah targets, which Israeli officials say are responses to ceasefire violations by the Iranian-backed militant group.
The Israel Defense Forces continues its intense airstrike and ground campaigns in Gaza, particularly in the north of the devastated Palestinian territory.
Tensions also remain high between Israel and Iran after tit-for-tat long-range strikes in recent months and threats of further military action from both sides.
Israeli drone strike injures Lebanon soldier, army says The Lebanese Armed Forces said on Monday that an Israeli drone “targeted an army bulldozer while it was carrying out fortification work” at a military center in the northeastern Hermel region close to the border with Syria.
The attack “resulted in one soldier being moderately injured,” the army wrote in a post to X.
The Israel Defense Forces has not yet commented on the alleged strike.
-ABC News’ Victoria Beaule
IDF confirms death of US-Israeli hostage
The Israel Defense Forces on Monday confirmed that missing U.S.-Israeli soldier Omer Maxim Neutra, 21, was among those killed in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack into southern Israel.
Neutra was believed taken into Gaza as a hostage by militants during the attack. But the IDF said Monday he was killed during the Oct. 7 assault and his body was taken by militants.
Neutra — originally from New York — was serving as a tank platoon commander in the 77th Battalion of the 7th Brigade at the time of the Hamas attack. He was among hundreds of security forces personnel killed during the assault.
Neutra’s parents have been campaigning for a hostage release deal in the U.S., their activity including public appearances at the White House and the Capitol.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
IDF reports ‘several operations’ against Hezbollah in Lebanon
The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday it launched “several operations” targeting Hezbollah fighters that it claimed posed a direct threat to Israel “in violation of the ceasefire agreement.”
Among the operations was an attack on armed militants operating close to a church in southern Lebanon, the IDF said.
Those killed “were active in the ground defense, anti-tank and artillery formations in the sector, and took part in the fighting while using the church,” it wrote in a post to X.
The 60-day ceasefire that went into effect last week is holding despite continued sporadic fighting and Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon.
The deal stipulates that IDF troops will withdraw from their positions in Lebanon during the 60-day window and that Hezbollah forces will withdraw from the region south of the Litani River.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Hostage Edan Alexander’s father makes an appeal to Biden, Trump and Netanyahu
The father of American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander issued an emotional request on Sunday to President Biden, President-elect Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling the leaders to act now to bring the hostages home “before it’s too late.”
A day after seeing his son for the first time in a year in a propaganda video released by Hamas’ military wing, Adi Alexander of New Jersey spoke at a rally in New York City’s Central Park, saying, “No father should hear his child plead for his life like that.”
“President Biden, President Trump, Prime Minster Netanyahu, I call on all of you to act,” Alexander said. “This is not a moment for politics or hesitation. This is a moment of courage, collaboration and decisive action.”
He appealed to Biden to use the United States’ influence “to negotiate a deal before it’s too late.”
Directing his words to Trump, he said, “You do not have to wait until January to make an impact. The world is watching. Act now.”
To Netanyahu, Alexander said, “The fate of the hostages, including my son, rests in your hands. You have the power to bring them home. Don’t let this opportunity slip away.”
Edan Alexander, 20, was serving in the Israeli military and stationed near Gaza when he was taken captive by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023.
The White House issued a statement, saying, it has been in touch with the Alexander family and called the hostage video a “cruel reminder of Hamas’s terror against citizens of multiple countries, including our own.”
“The war in Gaza would stop tomorrow and the suffering of Gazans would end immediately– and would have ended months ago– if Hamas agreed to release the hostages,” White House National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said in a statement. “It has refused to do so, but as the President said last week, we have a critical opportunity to conclude the deal to release the hostages, stop the war, and surge humanitarian assistance into Gaza. This deal is on the table now.”
Netanyahu to hold meeting to discuss hostages, Lebanon, Syria tonight: Official
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold a security meeting Sunday night to discuss the issue of the hostages, as well as Lebanon and Syria, an Israeli official told ABC News.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
UN pauses aid deliveries to Gaza amid safety concerns
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini on Sunday announced a pause to Gaza aid deliveries via the strip’s main crossing point, citing serious threats to the safety of staff.
The road out of the Kerem Shalom crossing “has not been safe for months,” Lazzarini said in a post to X.
“This difficult decision comes at a time hunger is rapidly deepening,” Lazzarini said. “The delivery of humanitarian aid must never be dangerous or turn into an ordeal.”
The UNRWA chief said a “large convoy of aid trucks was stolen by armed gangs” on Nov. 16, with several more aid trucks taken on Saturday.
Lazzarini also said that Israel’s “ongoing siege” of Gaza, “hurdles” put in place by Israeli authorities and “political decisions to restrict the amounts of aid” were among the other problems facing U.N. staff.
“The humanitarian operation has become unnecessarily impossible,” he wrote. “The responsibility of protection of aid workers [and] supplies is with the state of Israel as the occupying power.”
