Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary reports from Deir el-Balah, central Gaza that in the past couple of hours, the Israeli forces targeted a school in Gaza City.
“At least four Palestinians were killed. Among them is a child, and at least 25 Palestinians have been injured in that attack.
“The Israel forces targeted a tent that was sheltering a Palestinian family,” she said.
“So Palestinians do not know where to go. They have been targeting different areas all over the Gaza Strip: in schools and hospitals, in residential buildings,” Khoudary added.
In its latest conflict update, the Israeli military says it has carried out a strike on a Hamas fighter in Gaza City, destroying tunnels Al Jazeera reports.
In an earlier update, the military said Israeli soldiers in the Southern Brigade had destroyed two tunnels spanning 2 kilometres used by Hamas in the southern and central parts of the enclave.
Israel has hit back at Hamas, saying it is the one creating “new obstacles” to an agreement, Al Jazeera reports.
“Hamas is once again lying, reneging on understandings already reached, and continuing to create new obstacles in the negotiations,” a statement from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
The face of Samar Ahmed, 37, shows clear signs of exhaustion.
It is not just because she has five children, nor that they have been displaced several times since the start of Israel’s brutal invasion of Gaza 14 months ago and are now living in cramped, cold conditions in a makeshift tent in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis.
Samar is also a victim of domestic violence and has no way to escape her abuser in the cramped conditions of this camp.
Two days ago, her husband beat her around the face leaving her with a swollen cheek and a blood spot in her eye. Her eldest daughter clung to her all night following that attack, which happened in front of the children.
Samar does not want to break up her family — they have already been forced to move from Gaza City, to the Shati camp in Rafah and now to Khan Younis — and the children are young. Her eldest, Laila, is just 15. She also has 12-year-old Zain, 10-year-old Dana, Lana, seven, and Adi, five, to think about.
A woman and children stand from afar to view the site of Israeli bombardment on tents sheltering Palestinians displaced from Beit Lahia at a camp in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on December 25. — AFP
Al Jazeera Arabic reports that at least three Palestinians, including a child, have been killed and several others have been injured following the Israeli bombing of a school housing displaced people in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood.
Reporting from a musical choir performance in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim says Palestinians are marking a sad Christmas.
“A local choir from Bethlehem and Hebron is singing along with Palestinians in Khan Younis from a band called Gaza Birds Singing via an internet connection,” she said.
Displaced teachers and music students in the besieged Gaza Strip formed the band during the conflict to use music as a way to cope with the difficulties amid the ongoing onslaught.
“It was a difficult technical initiative to merge between the singers here and the ones in Gaza; it took more than one hour. The band in Gaza has had to move from the al-Mawasi area in Khan Younis to another area to look for a better internet connection so they could make this musical event work,” Ibrahim said.
“They say they cannot physically meet, but at least virtually they will be singing together. They are sending a message from Bethlehem, Hebron and Gaza, to the world that they are one nation, but they cannot meet.
“They are not singing Christmas carols … one of the songs is called ‘Give us a Childhood’. They want peace. They want to live their childhood. They are marking yet another Christmas with their people undergoing a genocide.”
More than 45,361 Palestinians have been killed and 107,803 injured in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since October 7, 2023, the enclave’s health ministry has said in a statement, Reuters reports.
Pope Francis denounced the “extremely grave” humanitarian situation in Gaza and appealed for the freeing of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in his traditional Christmas address in Rome, AFP reports.
“I think of the Christian communities in Israel and Palestine, particularly in Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is extremely grave. May there be a ceasefire, may the hostages be released and aid be given to the people worn out by hunger and by war,” he said.
A pregnant woman was killed in one of the Israeli air strikes on a house in Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary reports.
“Medics were able to save the baby, but it lost the mother,” she says.
Khoudary added that Palestinian writer Walaa Jumaa Al-Ifranji and her husband were killed in an Israeli strike on their home, while a baby died from cold weather in a makeshift camp in Khan Younis.
“The situation is dire on every level across the Gaza Strip,” Khoudary reports.
A Palestinian activist has shared a video on an Instagram account, showing a group of children in northern Gaza rejoicing upon seeing fruit for the first time since the beginning of Israel’s military offensive, Al Jazeera reports.
Activist Yahya Al-Awadeh commented on the video: “The joy of children with the entry of fruits for the first time in 14 months within the northern Gaza area.”
The video has been verified by Sanad, Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency.
Lebanon’s state media has said an Israeli air strike targeted the Baalbek region in the east of the country before dawn, branding it a “violation” of the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, AFP reports.
Today’s strike near the town of Tarya did not result in casualties, the state-run National News Agency said, calling the attack the “first violation of the ceasefire agreement” in the Baalbek area.
A Lebanese security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the strike targeted “warehouses believed to belong to Hezbollah”.
Minister of Immigration and Absorption Ofir Sofer has told Israeli Army Radio that it was “impossible to recover 100” captives from Gaza through military operations, Al Jazeera reports.
“We need a proper deal now too. We must do a lot to return them,” he was quoted as saying.
The spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority’s security services has announced the death of a captain of the General Intelligence Service in Jenin, occupied West Bank, according to Al Jazeera.
He said the member died due to his injuries sustained while trying to dismantle an explosive device during the PA’s operation in Jenin.
The PA has been conducting raids in Jenin, where at least seven Palestinians have been killed in the last two weeks.
At least 24 Palestinians were killed in overnight Israeli airstrikes on homes and tents in displacement camps in the Gaza Strip, medical sources said, according to Anadolu.
Ten people lost their lives when an Israeli fighter jet hit a home in the Maen area in the southern city of Khan Younis, one source said.
Two more people were killed in another strike targeting a residential apartment in Al-Manara neighbourhood in southern Khan Younis, he added.
Civil Defence teams retrieved the bodies of two Palestinians after an Israeli strike on a tent for displaced civilians in western Khan Younis, medics said.
A man and his wife were also killed and several people were injured when Israeli forces bombed a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, another medical source said.
Israeli warplanes also hit a house in the Jabalia Nazla area in northern Gaza, leaving six people dead, he added.
A pregnant woman was killed in an airstrike on an apartment in Gaza City, while a young man lost his life and three people were injured in another strike in the central city of Deir al-Balah, according to the same source.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have said that they had fired a ballistic missile at central Israel, with Israeli forces saying they intercepted the attack, AFP reports.
The missile was aimed at the Tel Aviv area, the Houthis said.
The Israelis reported it was shot down before it entered Israeli territory.
“The Yemeni Armed Forces targeted a military target of the Israeli enemy in the occupied area of Yaffa (Tel Aviv) using a hypersonic ballistic missile, type Palestine 2,” a Houthi military statement said.
“The operation has successfully achieved its objectives,” it added.
Christmas revellers around the world have donned red and white Santa hats, offered meals to the homeless and lit candles today, as Pope Francis launched observation of the global holiday with a sombre mass in the Vatican, AFP reports.
At Saint Peter’s Basilica, Francis used his Christmas Eve mass to urge Christians to think “of the wars, of the machine-gunned children, of the bombs on schools or hospitals” as this year’s Christmas once again takes place under the shadow of Israel’s invasion of Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Francis is due to deliver his traditional Christmas Day blessing, Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world) later today, while in the biblical birthplace of Jesus, the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, observations of the holiday have been muted.
For the second year in a row, Bethlehem has done away with its giant Christmas tree and the elaborate decorations that normally draw throngs of tourists, settling for just a few festive lights.
“This year we limited our joy,” Bethlehem mayor Anton Salman told
AFP.
At Manger Square, in the heart of the Palestinian city, a group of scouts held a parade that broke the silence. “Our children want to play and laugh,” read a sign carried by one of them, as his friends whistled and cheered.
Other banners said: “We want life, not death”, and “Stop the Gaza genocide now!” Jerusalem resident Hisham Makhoul said spending Christmas in the holy city offered an “escape” from the conflict.
A man holds up a phone for Father Gabriel Romanelli, Parish Priest of the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Family, to have a video conference call with Pope Francis as the latter blesses the congregation during Christmas Eve mass at the church in the Zaytoun neighbourhood of Gaza City on December 24. — AFP
Three civilians were killed and several others were injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting a house in the city of Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip, Wafa reports.
According to a Wafa correspondent, the Israeli airstrike struck a house in Beit Hanoun, killing three members of one family and wounding several others.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said attacks on hospitals in North Gaza governorate in recent days are having a devastating impact on civilians who remain in besieged areas, Wafareports.
“We are deeply concerned by reports that the Israeli military entered the Indonesian Hospital in North Gaza today, forcing its evacuation. In recent days, attacks have also been reported in and around Al Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals, the two other facilities that are still minimally functioning in North Gaza,” said OCHA in a statement.
However, so far in December, the Israeli authorities have rejected 48 of 52 UN attempts to coordinate humanitarian access to besieged areas of the north. Although four humanitarian movements were initially approved, they faced impediments, said OCHA.
Since the intensification of Israeli military operations in North Gaza on 6 October 2024, none of the UN-coordinated attempts to access the area have been fully facilitated, it added.
The statement noted that across the Gaza Strip, just 40 per cent of requests for humanitarian movements requiring coordination with the Israeli authorities have been facilitated this month.
Israeli forces have killed at least eight Palestinians in raids on a refugee camp near the city of Tulkarm in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian and Israeli officials say, according to Reuters.
Khawla Abdo, a 53-year-old woman, was killed as a result of shelling by Israeli forces at dawn, while Fathi Saeed Odeh Salem, an 18-year-old man, died after being shot in the abdomen and chest, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Another Palestinian woman died in the afternoon due to sustained injuries from the attack.
Later on Tuesday, the health ministry updated its death toll to eight after a new round of shelling in Tulkarm by Israeli forces. Hamas’ armed wing al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement that two of its members were killed by Israeli forces in Tulkarm.
The Israeli military said earlier it killed one Palestinian in a “counter-terrorism” operation in Tulkarm, while its forces arrested 18 other wanted individuals and confiscated dozens of weapons.
The Israeli army said earlier today that one of its commanders was moderately injured after his vehicle was hit by an explosive device during the operation in the area of Tulkarm.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces prevented ambulance crews from reaching Salem by opening fire on them.
A view shows an explosion, which the Al-Qassam Brigades says was following the detonation of a military bulldozer, in this screengrab obtained from a handout video in a location given as Tulkarm, Israeli-occupied West Bank, released on Dec 24, 2024. — Al-Qassam Brigades via Reuters
Iran has denounced what it termed Israel’s “brazen admission” of having killed former Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran earlier this year, AFP reports.
“This brazen admission marks the first time the Israeli regime has openly confessed to its responsibility for this heinous crime,” said Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations Amir Saeid Iravani in a letter addressed to the UN secretary-general.
Iravani termed Israel’s killing of Haniyeh a “heinous terrorist act,” adding that Katz’s statement showed Iran was justified in striking Israel in retaliation.
“It also reaffirms the legitimacy and legality of Iran’s defensive response on 1 October 2024, as well as Iran’s consistent position that the occupying and terrorist regime of Israel remains the most serious threat to regional and international peace and security.”
The actions of the Israeli military had a “circumstantial influence” on a decision by Hamas gunmen to kill six hostages in Gaza in August, according to a military investigation published yesterday, Reutersreports.
The recovery in September of the bodies of six Israeli hostages, including American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, triggered deep shock in Israel, prompting half a million people to stage street protests demanding the government enter a hostage deal with Hamas.
The six, seized by Palestinian fighters during the Oct 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, were shot dead 48-72 hours before being found by Israeli forces, according to health ministry estimates.
The hostages were killed by their captors, the investigation found, and that the Israeli military’s activity “in the area, although gradual and cautious, had a circumstantial influence” on the gunmens’ decision to carry out the killings.
The military had no prior intelligence about the presence of the six hostages in the area, the investigation found.
“The investigation published tonight proves once again that the return of all hostages will only be possible through a deal,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement yesterday.
A person writes ‘Murdered!’ on a mock milk carton with the face of US citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was kidnapped in the October 7 attack in Israel, in New York City, US on Oct 7, 2024. — Reuters
Israel’s military intercepted a missile earlier today that was launched from Yemen and crossed into Israeli territory, Reuters quotes the army as saying.
Sirens were activated due to the possibility of falling shrapnel from the interception, the army said in a statement.
Magen David Adom ambulance service said in a statement that it had received reports of approximately nine people injured on their way to the protected area.
Israeli authorities have denied 48 of 52 attempts by the United Nations to coordinate humanitarian access to northern Gaza, which is under a “near-total siege”, since December 1, while the four that received approval still faced impediments, Al Jazeera quotes the UN as saying.
In its latest Gaza situation report, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) also reported that patients with treatable illnesses were dying in the enclave because of “depleted medical supplies and lack of life-saving equipment”.
OCHA’s latest report said the attacks “near or on” the al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals in northern Gaza continued, and both facilities required urgent supplies of food and water.
