Israel's Gaza invasion - Day 421

Jihadist-led rebels seized Aleppo’s airport and dozens of nearby towns on Saturday after overrunning most of Syria’s second city, a war monitor said, AFP reports.

“Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions… took control of most of the city and government centres and prisons without meeting great resistance,” the Britain-based war monitor said.

They also overran Aleppo airport after government forces withdrew, and took control of “dozens of strategic towns without any resistance”, it added.

The Observatory reported that the army had pulled out of Syria’s fourth largest city Hama, around 140 kilometres south of Aleppo, in the face of the rebel advance.

But a military source cited by state media denied the army had withdrawn, insisting units were still holding their positions in the rebels’ path.

The Israeli military said that a projectile launched from Yemen was intercepted before it crossed into Israeli territory, Reuters reports.

The military earlier said sirens had sounded in a number of areas in central Israel following a launch from Yemen.

The relief group said Israeli forces “targeted and assassinated” its chef and co-founder, Mahmoud Almadhoun, in a drone attack in northern Gaza on Saturday, Al Jazeera reports.

“We believe he was killed because of his unwavering dedication to solving problems for Kamal Adwan Hospital and ensuring they had whatever they needed,” the group said, referring to the besieged medical facility in Beit Lahiya.

“Mahmoud was a lifeline, standing in the way of the ethnic cleansing they are determined to carry out—and they would not allow that to continue,” the group added.

Israeli forces have been laying siege to northern Gaza since October 6, preventing the entry of food, water and medicine, and bombarding the Kamal Adwan Hospital, in a campaign rights groups say is aimed at clearing the area of all of its residents.

Gaza Soup Kitchen said Mahmoud leaves behind seven children, including a two-week-old baby.

The White House has issued a statement saying it has been in touch with the family of Edan Alexander, an Israeli-American captive, after he appeared in an undated video released by Hamas on Saturday, Al Jazeera reports.

“The hostage video released today of American-Israeli citizen is a cruel reminder of Hamas’s terror against citizens of multiple countries, including our own,” White House National Security Council Spokesperson Sean Savett said in a statement.

“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,” Savett said

He added that a “deal is on the table now”, as a Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo to discuss proposals for a ceasefire and an exchange of prisoners.

“On behalf of the Alexanders and all the families of the hostages still being held by Hamas, we will never cease in our efforts to secure their immediate release,” Savett said.

The soldiers arrested the two students from An-Najah National University after raiding their homes in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera Arabic reported, citing local sources.

The two were arrested in the village of Burin in the Nablus governorate.

Israeli forces have arrested at least 11,900 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since launching the war on Gaza last October, according to the Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.

The Wafa news agency reports that the targeted building in the Tall az-Zaatar area was housing displaced Palestinians and that the 40 people killed included women and children.

The agency, citing its correspondents on the ground, said that “a large number” of people remain trapped under the rubble, “but it is difficult to rescue them due to the lack of ambulance and emergency workers”.

Al Jazeera reports that Israeli forces have been laying siege to Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoon since October 6 and have barred civil defence crews from operating in the area.

Save the Children has published a new report on the impact of Israel’s onslaught on Palestinian children in Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.

It said the conflict “has inflicted unprecedented and potentially irreversible harm on Palestinian children, with consequences that threaten not only their individual futures but the very fabric of Palestinian society for generations to come”.

The report identified several short and long-term consequences of the conflict on Palestinian children.

It said children in Gaza face acute risks from explosive weapons, starvation, disease, and lack of essential services, while malnutrition, inadequate healthcare, and constant exposure to violence are inflicting lasting damage on their physical and cognitive development.

A Hamas delegation has arrived in Cairo to discuss proposals for a ceasefire in Gaza, following talks earlier this week between Egyptian and Israeli negotiators, Al Jazeera reports.

Unnamed sources told The National newspaper that the Hamas delegation is being led by Khalil al-Hayah, Zaher Jabareen, and Moussa Marzouq.

The proposal is thought to include a 20-to-30-day truce. During that time, Hamas would try and identify the location of the estimated 100 captives it’s holding. If a ceasefire is reached, the two sides would exchange hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

While it remains uncertain whether Hamas and Israel will accept the plan, Egyptian officials want to build on the momentum from Tuesday’s ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

The Government Media Office in Gaza says the number of journalists killed in Gaza has reached 191 after the death of Mamdouh Quneita in Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, Al Jazeera reports.

Quneita was an editor for Al-Aqsa satellite channel, the media office said.

“The Government Media Office condemns in the strongest terms the targeting, killing and assassination of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli occupation. We hold it fully responsible for committing this heinous crime,” it said in a statement.

The military arm of Hamas has released a video of a man identifying himself as an Israeli hostage held in Gaza since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, AFP reports.

In the video, whose date cannot be verified, a man addresses US President-elect Donald Trump in English and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Hebrew.

Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee has issued renewed restrictions on residents of southern Lebanon, Al Jazeera reports.

“It is strictly forbidden to move or travel south of the Litani River starting from 5pm [14:00 GMT] until 7am [4:00 GMT] tomorrow,” Adraee said on X. “Those south of the Litani River must remain where they are.”

The World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid group, which has been running a lot of community kitchens in Gaza, has halted the distribution of food in the enclave after Israeli attacks on its staff, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary reports.

“After today’s attack, the community kitchens did not work and serve people. So, it’s beyond attacking Palestinians, Palestinian workers, aid organisations, it’s attacking all sources of aid, and all sources of community kitchens, and those who have been working tirelessly to prevent starvation in Gaza,” she reports.

Khoudary adds, “The question remains, why does Israel continue to target the World Central Kitchen community and their employees in the Gaza Strip?”

Medics have said at least 32 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes across the enclave overnight and into today, Reuters reports.

Medics said nine people were killed when an Israeli air strike targeted a vehicle near a gathering of Palestinians receiving aid in the southern area of Khan Younis south of the enclave.

Residents and a Hamas source told Reuters that the vehicle targeted near a crowd receiving flour was used by security personnel tasked with overseeing aid deliveries into Gaza.

Among the 32 killed, at least seven died in an Israeli strike on a house in central Gaza City, according to a statement from the Gaza Civil Defence and the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

The Gaza Civil Defense also reported that one of its officers was killed in attacks in northern Gaza’s Jabalia, bringing the total number of civil defence workers killed since October 7, 2023, to 88.

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An Israeli airstrike on a vehicle has killed seven Palestinians and wounded others in Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza strip, medics told Reuters.

The car was hit near a gathering of people receiving flour, according to residents from the area.

The Israeli military has said it had struck “military infrastructure” at the Syria-Lebanon border being used by Hezbollah for weapons smuggling in violation of their ceasefire agreement, according to AFP.

The air force launched a “strike on military infrastructure sites adjacent to border crossings between Syria and Lebanon that were actively used by Hezbollah to smuggle weapons from Syria into Lebanon” the military said in a statement.

It said the smuggling happened “after the ceasefire agreement went into effect”.

Lebanon’s health ministry has said an Israeli strike on a vehicle in south Lebanon wounded three people, including a child, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah after two months of conflict, AFP reports.

“An Israeli enemy strike on a car in Majdal Zoun wounded three people including a seven-year-old child,” the health ministry said in a statement.

The Gaza Health Ministry has said that at least 44,382 people have been killed in more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants, AFP reports.

The toll includes 19 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 105,142 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since fighting broke out on October 7, 2023.

The Israeli military has said it killed an October 7 attacker in a vehicle strike in Gaza and is investigating claims that the individual was a World Central Kitchen employee, Reuters reports.

The World Central Kitchen has not yet commented on the incident.

The Palestinian National Council (PNC) has condemned efforts to grant diplomatic immunity to “Israeli war criminals”, Anadolu reports.

In a statement, PNC President Rawhi Fattouh denounced the “horrific massacres carried out by the occupation, which claimed the lives of over 100 martyrs in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza”.

He called for “immediate international intervention to rescue two million people from famine and ethnic cleansing”.

Fattouh criticised “attempts by some nations to shield Israeli war criminals” in the wake of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) decision to issue arrest warrants, describing them as “a reflection of extreme racism and support for an unprecedented apartheid system.”

These actions, he said, “only embolden the occupation to persist with its blockade and crimes.”

Israeli forces have arrested at least 16 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since yesterday, Al Jazeera reports according to the Wafa news agency, citing prisoners’ groups.

The Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said the arrests occurred across the governorates of Qalqilya, Nablus, Hebron, Tulkarem and Jerusalem, Wafa reported.

The number of arrests by Israeli forces of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since Israel’s offensive on Gaza began has surpassed 11,900, the report said.

Al Jazeera Arabic reports that several Palestinians have been injured in an Israeli raid on a house in the Shujaiya neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City.

Earlier, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, said at least 17 people had been killed in Gaza City since dawn.

Outgoing EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has acknowledged criticism of the EU’s “double standards” in its inconsistent stance on the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, saying that this idea spread widely in the countries of the Global South, Anadolu reports.

Before leaving his position, Josep Borrell evaluated his five-year tenure on his blog, reflecting on Gaza and other issues days before former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas succeeds him on Sunday.

He said the bloc had not managed to be consistent and effective in the Middle East, saying that after October 7, 2023, when Israel’s relentless offensive on Gaza began following a cross-border Hamas attack, “we were unable to speak with one voice or act effectively enough to help obtain a ceasefire, secure the release of the hostages, and ensure respect for international law and the decisions of the Security Council, the United Nations General Assembly, and the International Court of Justice in the region”.

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The United Nations Palestinian relief agency UNRWA has shared the struggles of a family seeking shelter in one of the classrooms of a school-turned-shelter in the Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera reports.

UNRWA said in a post on X, “In war-torn Gaza, Abu Mohammed and his family are surviving in one of the classrooms of an UNRWA school-turned-shelter.”

“The harsh winter weather increases the risk that damaged buildings — where families have sought shelter — could collapse,” it added.