FirstFT: Israel resumes fighting against Hamas after ceasefire expires

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Israel’s military has restarted fighting against Hamas in Gaza, ending a week-long pause that mediators had hoped to extend to an eighth day.

The resumption of hostilities on Friday shattered a fragile truce that had allowed for the release of about 100 Israeli women and children and foreigners held hostage by Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups, in exchange for about 240 Palestinian women and children freed from Israeli jails.

“Hamas violated the operational pause, and in addition, fired towards Israeli territory,” the Israel Defense Forces said, following warning sirens near Gaza. “The IDF has resumed combat against the Hamas terrorist organisation in the Gaza Strip.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office accused Hamas of failing to meet its commitment to release “all the kidnapped women” and of firing rockets at Israel.

Hamas did not claim responsibility for the rockets launched, but another militant faction, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said it had bombed Israeli towns “in response” to Israeli fire on Gaza earlier on Friday. Here’s the latest on the conflict as the ceasefire ends.

Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:

• COP28: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva meet on the sidelines of the climate conference to discuss the EU-Mercosur trade pact.

• G20: Brazil takes over the rotating one-year presidency of the G20.

• Aukus: US defence secretary Lloyd Austin and his Australian and UK counterparts provide updates on the three nations’ security agreement.

• Economic data: S&P Global releases final November manufacturing purchasing managers’ indices for the US, EU, France, Germany, Italy and UK.

• Results: National Bank of Canada report.

How well did you keep up with the news this week? Take our quiz.

Five more top stories

1. Washington is aiming to halve Russia’s oil and gas revenues by the end of this decade, a senior US diplomat has said. Russia has continued to ship large volumes of petroleum since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but the International Energy Agency has forecast that its oil and gas exports could fall by at least 40 to 50 per cent by 2030 if western sanctions on its energy industry are maintained.

2. Canadian private capital group Brookfield has raised a record-sized $28bn infrastructure fund as institutional investors plough cash into strategies they expect will benefit from higher interest rates and a shift away from globalisation. The fund is the largest-ever dedicated to investing in assets such as airports, toll roads, pipelines and natural gas export plants and the biggest fund raised by Brookfield.

3. Tesla revealed on Thursday that pricing for the cheapest model of its long-delayed Cybertruck will start at $60,990, as the electric-car maker officially began the first deliveries of the futuristic-looking vehicle. The price tag for the first new model in more than three years is higher than the starting price of just under $40,000 Tesla gave when it first announced the vehicle in 2019. The carmaker said it has received more than 1mn pre-orders.

4. A federal judge has stopped a US state’s landmark ban on TikTok from going into effect, in an important test case for the widespread political backlash that has grown in the country against the Chinese-owned video sharing app. Montana’s Senate Bill 419, which was signed by the state’s Republican governor Greg Gianforte in May, would have imposed a ban on downloads of the app from January.

5. International investors holding billions of dollars of Evergrande bonds are braced for a court hearing that could lead to the Chinese property developer’s liquidation. Bondholders’ advisers have said such an order is likely to lead to “the uncontrolled collapse of the group” with a “catastrophic effect” on other developers and the ability of Chinese companies to raise money in international capital markets.

After expanding our ranking of Africa’s fastest-growing companies this year, the FT is seeking entries for the third annual list, to be published in early June 2024. Apply here to be considered.

News in-depth

For years, Sky Xu, the Chinese billionaire founder of fast-fashion group Shein, has kept a low profile, so much so that employees joke they do not recognise him at the office. His strategy of flying under the radar has been vindicated by the recent scrutiny of Chinese tycoons, but the intensely private Xu will soon be thrust into the spotlight when the ecommerce group, once valued at $100bn, launches its planned listing next year.

We’re also reading and listening to . . . 

• Humanitarian ‘tsunami’: The head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees warned that people in Gaza could start dying from diseases and Israel’s bombardment of the enclave entering winter.

• Profit sharing: Should businesses have to share profits with employees? Some governments are trying it, with surprising results, writes Soumaya Keynes.

• Biodiversity: The global economy’s dependence on nature is becoming clearer, but unless measures are taken to slow the drivers of biodiversity loss, many animal and plant species will disappear within decades, scientists say.

• Unhedged 🎧: Do markets respond to the economy, or to the amount of money central banks provide? The latest FT Unhedged looks at the view down the liquidity hole.

Chart of the day

China’s manufacturing activity contracted for the second month in November, indicating weakening momentum in the world’s second-largest economy despite increased government efforts to boost growth. The declines present a challenge for policymakers, who are under pressure to tackle a slowdown in the country’s debt-stricken property sector and revitalise the broader economy.

Take a break from the news

Is the American dream really dead? David Leonhardt’s book Ours Was the Shining Future argues that US economic stagnation has destroyed the myth of an ever-better life for its citizens, writes Rana Foroohar.

Additional contributions from George Russell