Unicef communications specialist Rosalia Bollen says “it’s absolutely appalling” that children continue to be killed every day in Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.
“While attacks are concentrated on the north, families are killed here in the centre and southern parts of Gaza as well,” she told Al Jazeera from Deir el-Balah.
“Beyond that, at least 14,500 children have been reported killed. There are tens of thousands more that are injured and at least a quarter of those are thought to require major rehabilitation, they risk lifelong disability.”
She said she met an eight-year-old girl in northern Gaza a few days ago who has now lost her leg up to the knee after three separate amputations because it kept getting infected due to a lack of medical supplies.
“And as this girl was explaining what had happened to her, she said she saw maggots coming out of her leg. This is something that no child should have to go through. The body of this eight-year-old has been brutalised. All children in Gaza have been traumatised.”
At least 16 more Palestinians have been detained in fresh Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank, according to prisoners’ affairs groups, Anadolu reports.
The raids targeted the cities of Bethlehem, Hebron, Nablus, Tulkarem, Jenin and Ramallah in the occupied territory, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.
“The raids were marked by abuse, threats against detainees and their families, and acts of vandalism and destruction on citizens’ homes,” it added.
The health ministry in Gaza has said that at least 45,028 people have been killed during more than 14 months of Israel’s offensive against Hamas in the enclave, AFP reports.
The toll includes 52 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 106,962 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the recent conflict began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct 7, 2023.
There have been simultaneous Israeli attacks on the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza, where five Palestinian civilians were killed after a residential building was flattened, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reports.
“And in the north of the Strip, there have been more staggering air attacks on residential homes that were filled with civilians,” the reporter said.
In Shujayea, 10 civilians were killed in an attack and most of them were from the same family, the reporter added.
Attacks have been ongoing throughout the night, into the morning, he said.
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris has said that Israel’s decision of shutting down its embassy is “deeply regrettable”, adding that Ireland “wants a two-state solution and for Israel and Palestine to live in peace and security”, Al Jazeera reports.
“I utterly reject the assertion that Ireland is anti-Israel. Ireland is pro-peace, pro-human rights and pro-International law,” he said in a post on X.
Israel said Sunday it will close its embassy in the Republic of Ireland as relations deteriorated over its genocide in Gaza, where Palestinian medical officials said new Israeli air attacks killed dozens of people, including children.
Israeli occupation forces demolished six houses in the town of Anata, northeast of occupied Jerusalem, Wafareports.
Local sources told Wafa that the occupation bulldozers demolished four houses owned by Al-Dhifain family, and two other houses belonging to Abu Ghalia family.
They added that the six houses are located in a Bedouin community that includes eight houses for a number of families who have lived there for more than 10 years.
Israeli colonists attacked a young man in Khallet Makhul in the northern Jordan Valley, Wafareports.
Moataz Basharat, an activist in Tubas, said that a group of colonists attacked Ashraf Hussein Basharat, a resident of Khallet Makhul, while he and his family were confronting their attempt to steal their livestock.
According to Wafa, colonists raided the homes of two brothers and tried to steal their livestock.
Israeli occupation forces sealed off a vital road in the old city of Hebron, in the southern occupied West Bank, using barbed wire to block access, according to local sources, Wafa reports.
Activist Aref Jaber reported that Israeli forces blocked the entrance to Ein Hamra, the only road serving residents of the a-Salaymeh and Jaber neighborhoods, as well as access to the Ibrahimi Mosque.
At least 20 civilians, including children, were killed and others were injured on Sunday night in an Israeli shelling targeting a school run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), which sheltered displaced families in western Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Wafareports.
According to local sources, an Israeli strike bombarded a UNRWA-run school located near Nasser Medical Complex, killing at least 20 people, including children, from the Tafesh family. Several others were injured in the strike.
A video posted online, verified by Al Jazeera, shows a young Palestinian child using a rollerblade to move between tents in Gaza after both of his legs were amputated.
Saudi Arabia has strongly condemned and denounced the “Israeli occupation government’s decision to expand settlements in the occupied Golan Heights”, its foreign ministry has said.
In a statement, the Saudi ministry said it also denounced Israel’s “continued sabotaging of Syria’s prospects for restoring its security and stability”.
“The Kingdom reiterates its call on the international community to denounce these Israeli violations, emphasising the importance of respecting Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The Kingdom reaffirms that the occupied Golanis Syrian, Arab land,“ the statement asserted.
A 16-year-old Palestinian boy was struck in the head with bullet shrapnel as heavy gunfire and loud explosions were heard during an Israeli army raid on the Balata refugee camp, in Nablus in occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera reports, citing Wafa.
The boy was rushed to hospital to receive treatment, Wafa added.
Meanwhile, Wafa further reported that a young Palestinian man was arrested during an Israeli raid on Yabad, south of Jenin.
Israeli forces also raided several villages and towns in the Salfit, Ramallah and el-Bireh governorates on Sunday night, Wafa added.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said nearly 19,000 children in Gaza have been hospitalised for acute malnutrition in the past four months, Al Jazeera reports.
According to UNRWA, the number is nearly double the cases recorded in the first half of the year in the besieged enclave.
The surge comes as Israel continues to restrict the entry of humanitarian aid into the enclave. It has also largely blocked all aid to besieged North Gaza since October 6. Among the items in short supply is baby formula.
UNRWA says one of its only functioning health centres recently received its first delivery in three months, but has only just six boxes to distribute.
“Immediate aid and a ceasefire now are vital to save lives,” it says.
Gaza’s civil defence agency has said Israeli strikes across the Palestinian territory yesterday killed at least 40 people, including several children, an Al Jazeera TV cameraman and three rescuers, AFP reports.
AFP images showed distraught relatives mourning the bodies of loved ones at a hospital in Gaza City. Some corpses lay on the floor covered in blankets.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that an Israeli strike on a school used as shelter by displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza’s main city killed at least 12 people, including a number of children.
“One missile hit the third floor of the school” in Khan Younis, also injuring 35 people, Bassal said. Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was looking into the report. Another strike on a house in Shujaiya, east of Gaza City, killed six people, according to the civil defence spokesman.
Bassal earlier told AFP that rescuers working through the night recovered the bodies of 18 people, including three children. He also reported more dead in a strike on a house in central Gaza City and another that hit a tent sheltering dozens of displaced people in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
A person reacts following an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Dec 15, 2024, in this screengrab taken from a video. — Reuters TV
Qatar-based Al Jazeera has condemned yesterday’s killing of one of its journalists in an Israeli strike on Gaza, calling the death a “targeted killing” in a statement.
According to AFP, Ahmad Baker Al-Louh is the fifth Al Jazeera journalist to be killed since Israel’s offensive in Gaza began more than 14 months ago.
“Al Jazeera Media Network condemns in the strongest terms the killing of its cameraman, Ahmad Baker Al-Louh, 39, by the Israeli occupation forces,” the channel said.
Mourners react during the funeral of Palestinians killed in an Israeli strike, at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on Dec 15, 2024. — Reuters
“He was brutally killed in an air strike that targeted a Civil Defence post in the market area of Al-Nuseirat Camp, central Gaza Strip,” it added.
The Israeli military confirmed in a statement it had killed Louh, claiming he was a member of Islamic Jihad and “previously served as a platoon commander” for the group.
Gaza’s civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal confirmed Louh had been killed in the strike on the Nuseirat camp that also claimed the lives of three members of Bassal’s rescue agency. Bassal told AFP a warplane had “targeted the Civil Defence site in Nuseirat camp”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he spoke with US President-elect Donald Trump about developments in Syria and a recent push to secure the release of Israeli and foreign hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, Reuters reports.
Netanyahu said he spoke with Trump on Saturday night. “We have no interest in a conflict with Syria,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
Israeli actions in Syria were intended to “thwart the potential threats from Syria and to prevent the takeover of terrorist elements near our border”, he said.
Three Palestinians have been killed, including a cameraman for Qatari television network Al Jazeera, in an Israeli airstrike in the central Gaza Strip, medics said, Anadolu reports.
The Doha-based broadcaster said that cameraman Ahmad Louh was killed while covering Israeli attacks in central Gaza. Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza confirmed that Louh lost his life in a strike targeting a civil defence point in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Two civil defence members were also killed in the attack, according to Zaki Imad Al-Din, a member of the Civil Defence Agency.
Israel’s decision to close its embassy in Ireland because of what it says are anti-Israeli policies is “deeply regrettable”, Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris has said, AFP reports.
“I utterly reject the assertion that Ireland is anti-Israel. Ireland is pro-peace, pro-human rights and pro-International law,” Ireland’s leader wrote on X.
Israel’s foreign ministry has announced that it is closing its embassy in Ireland, citing the Dublin government’s “extreme anti-Israeli policies,” further straining tense relations between the two nations, AFP reports.
“The decision to close Israel’s embassy in Dublin was made in light of the extreme anti-Israel policies of the Irish government,” the ministry said in a statement, following a series of moves by Ireland that included formally recognising a Palestinian state and backing an International Court of Justice case accusing Israel of “genocide” in the Gaza Strip.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has announced on X that it is suspending services in the Jenin camp in the occupied West Bank due to ongoing clashes between Palestinian security forces and armed actors.
“In an alarming trend, tensions are on the rise across northern West Bank refugee camps, undermining the fragile stability,” UNRWA said. “All sides of these internal confrontations need to uphold the basic principles of international law that guarantee the safety of civilians & their access to basic services in all situations.
“Children remain out of school & camp residents are unable to access primary healthcare & other critical services,” said the statement.
Overnight Israeli strikes across the Palestinian territory have killed at least 18 people, including four displaced individuals who had sought refuge in a tent, Gaza’s civil defence agency reports.
Agency spokesperson Mahmud Bassal told AFP that rescuers working through the night recovered the bodies of 18 people. He said dozens more were injured in the “ongoing aggression and Israeli aerial and artillery bombardment” across Gaza.
The dead included at least three children, Bassal said. He said four people were killed in an Israeli air strike targeting a house in central Gaza City.
Another four were killed, and eight injured, when an Israeli missile hit a tent sheltering dozens of displaced people in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
Palestinian women mourn relatives, killed in an Israeli strike the previous night, at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, also known as the Baptist hospital, in Gaza City on December 15. — AFP
The health ministry in Gaza has said that at least 44,976 people have been killed in more than 14 months of conflict.
The toll includes 46 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 106,759 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since Israel’s invasion of Gaza on October 7, 2023.
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini speaking about the harrowing conditions faced by people in Gaza, said “Hunger is deepening in Gaza” while speaking in an interview on CNN.
He spoke about a UNRWA staff member saying, “I lost 30 kilos, we are hungry and we are just eating animal food to keep us alive.”
He added that in November they couldn’t reach 1.7 million people in Gaza.
Two Palestinians were killed and several others injured following an Israeli airstrike that targeted the area surrounding Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, Wafareports.
According to medical sources, the airstrike hit a gathering of civilians near the hospital, which has been subjected to continuous bombardment for over two months. The attack led to two individuals being killed and left others wounded, as the region remains heavily affected by ongoing Israeli military attacks.
Israeli occupation forces detained seven Palestinians from various cities in the occupied West Bank, which included a woman from Qalqilya who was taken as a hostage by the Israeli military, Wafareports.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society and the Palestinian Authority’s Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees, the detentions took place across several governorates, including Ramallah, Hebron, Tubas, Tulkarm, Qalqilya, and Jerusalem.
The woman from Qalqilya was reportedly detained under the Israeli practice of holding relatives of wanted Palestinians as hostages, a tactic often used by the Israeli occupation authorities to pressure families.
