Your Evening Briefing: 20,000 Palestinians Reported Killed in Gaza War

In the 11 weeks since the militant group Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping hundreds more, authorities there said, Israel’s military has laid waste to much of the Gaza Strip. More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed—mostly women and children—in the impoverished, densely packed area, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said. The number of reported dead is equivalent to 1 out of every 100 people living in Gaza before the war. It is unknown how many of the fatalities are Hamas combatants. Almost 2 million Palestinians have been forced to flee their homes, the United Nations has reported, and new reporting by the New York Times alleges Israel bombed areas where it told Palestinians to seek safety, using 2,000 pound bombs. On Friday, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution calling for increasing the flow of aid into Gaza, but stopped short of demanding a cease-fire. The US, which has designated Hamas a terrorist organization, and Russia abstained.

The US Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of underlying inflation barely rose in November and even fell below policymakers’ 2% target by one measure, auguring a successful soft landing by Fed Chair Jerome Powell while reinforcing the central bank’s pivot toward interest-rate cuts next year. Consumers remained optimistic that inflation will improve in the final December reading from the University of Michigan, also out Friday, contributing to a robust rebound in sentiment. However, US new-home sales unexpectedly slumped in November, suggesting a bumpy road to recovery for the housing market.