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[VIDEOS/PICTURES] Bloodshed in the land of Palestine - 2023 Edition

Israeli army forces patients out of north Gaza hospital, medics say

Israeli troops forced the evacuation of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza and many patients, some of them on foot, arrived at another hospital miles away in Gaza City, the territory's health ministry said on Tuesday.

The Indonesian Hospital is one of the Gaza Strip's few still partially functioning hospitals, on its northern edge, an area that has been under intense Israeli military pressure for nearly three months.

Israel says its operation around the three northern Gaza communities surrounding the hospital - Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia - is targeting Hamas militants.

A statement from the Israeli military said the Indonesian Hospital was being used by fighters to launch attacks against Israeli troops and that it "facilitated the secure evacuation of civilians, medical personnel, and patients from the area both before and during the operation".

Palestinians accuse Israel of seeking to permanently depopulate northern Gaza to create a buffer zone, which Israel denies.

Munir Al-Bursh, director of the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, said the Israeli army had ordered hospital officials to evacuate it on Monday, before storming it in the early hours of Tuesday and forcing those inside to leave.

He said two other medical facilities in northern Gaza, Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan Hospitals, were also subject to frequent assaults by Israeli troops.

Israeli forces have operated in the vicinity of the Kamal Adwan hospital since Monday, medics said.

Officials at the three hospitals have refused orders by Israel to evacuate their facilities or leave patients unattended since the new military offensive began on Oct. 5.

Israel says it has been facilitating the delivery of medical supplies, fuel and the transfer of patients to other hospitals in the enclave during that period in collaboration with international agencies such as the World Health Organization.

Hussam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, said they resisted a new order by the army to evacuate hundreds of patients, their companions and staff, adding that the hospital has been under constant Israeli fire that damaged generators, oxygen pumps and parts of the building.

An Israeli security official said the area was a Hamas stronghold.

"Kamal Adwan is at the heart of the most complex fighting in Jabaliya," he said. "We are being very careful."

NEW STRIKES

Meanwhile, Israeli bombardment continued elsewhere in the enclave and medics said at least nine Palestinians, including a member of the civil emergency service, were killed in four separate military strikes on Tuesday.

Later on Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike killed six people in Jabalia in northern Gaza Strip, bringing the day's death toll to 15, medics said.

The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's campaign against Hamas has since killed more than 45,200 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-run enclave. Most of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced and much of Gaza is in ruins.

A new bid by mediators Egypt, Qatar and the United States to end the fighting and release Israeli and foreign hostages has gained momentum this month, though no breakthrough has been reported.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said progress had been made in hostage negotiations with Hamas but that he did not know how much longer it would take to see the results.

Gaps between Israel and Hamas over a possible Gaza ceasefire have narrowed, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials' remarks on Monday, though crucial differences have yet to be resolved.

DAWN NEWS
 
World turning blind eye to killing of children’ in Gaza

Sohai Marouf, who has witnessed Israel’s overnight drone attack in Khan Younis, has told Al Jazeera that “the world does not care about the massacres and genocide being committed against Palestinians”.

“The world is silent about these massacres. The world is silent about the current genocide. The world is turning a blind eye to the killing of children, women and young girls,” he said.

“These people are basically fleeing death for the Israelis to come and kill them while they are sitting in the middle of a tent in the so described by the Israeli occupation as a safe humanitarian area,” Marouf said.

“What does the world need us to do in order to force Israel to stop killing us,” he added.

Source: Al Jazeera
 
Five Gaza journalists killed in Israeli strike

A Palestinian TV channel says five of its journalists have been killed in an Israeli strike in the central Gaza Strip.

They were in a Quds Today van parked outside al-Awda hospital, where the wife of one of the journalists was about to give birth, in the central Nuseirat refugee camp.

The channel posted a video of what it said was the burning vehicle with "press" signage on the back doors.

The Israeli Air Force said it had attacked "in a targeted manner and with intelligence guidance" a vehicle with members of armed group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) inside. It added that measures had been taken to minimise civilian casualties.

The BBC has not been able to verify the claims made by both sides.

Quds Today is affiliated with the PIJ group that took part in the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. The unprecedented attack triggered the war in Gaza.

In a separate development, five people were reported killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza City on Wednesday.

The Palestinian Wafa news agency, and the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, also said a further 20 people were injured in the city's al-Zeitoun neighbourhood.

The Israeli military has not commented on the reported bombing.

Also on Wednesday, Hamas and Israel blamed each other for delays in the latest attempt to reach a ceasefire.

Hamas accused the Israeli government of imposing "new conditions" that it said were delaying the agreement.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the group was reneging on understandings that had already been reached about a possible ceasefire.

The latest statements mark a notable change of tone on both sides.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu's office said Israeli representatives had returned from Qatar, which is mediating, after "significant negotiations" - and earlier Palestinian negotiators told the BBC the talks were 90% complete bar a few issues.

The Israeli military launched air strikes and a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip in response to last year's Hamas attack. About 1,200 people were killed in the attack and another 251 taken back to Gaza as hostages.

More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's offensive, Gaza's health ministry says. Almost two million people - 90% of the population - have been displaced, according to the UN.

BBC
 
WHO chief near Israeli strike that killed 2 at Yemen airport, atrocities continue in Gaza

WHO chief says he was at Sanaa airport with his teams as Israeli air raids targeted the capital.

Israel has killed 38 Palestinians in Gaza and injured 137 across the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours.

Hamas accuses Israel of setting “new conditions” in ongoing ceasefire talks and delaying a truce deal, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office blames the Palestinian group for creating “new obstacles”.

Israel’s military has also intensified its raid on the Tulkarem refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, sending in reinforcements a day after killing eight people there. The victims include two women and a teenager.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 45,399 Palestinians and wounded 107,940 since October 7, 2023. At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks that day, and more than 200 were taken captive.

Source: Al Jazeera
 
Five Gaza journalists killed in Israeli strike targeting armed group

A Palestinian TV channel says five of its journalists have been killed in an Israeli strike in the central Gaza Strip.

They were in a Quds Today van parked outside al-Awda hospital, where the wife of one of the journalists was about to give birth, in the central Nuseirat refugee camp.

The channel posted a video of what it said was the burning vehicle with "press" signage on the back doors.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had targeted "Islamic Jihad operatives posing as journalists" and that steps were taken to avoid harming civilians.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said it was "devastated by the reports".

"Journalists are civilians and must always be protected," it said.

The BBC has not been able to verify claims made by either side, with international media being prevented by Israel from entering and freely working on the ground in Gaza.

Quds Today is affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), an armed group that took part in the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. The unprecedented attack triggered the war in Gaza. The TV channel is believed to receive funding from the group.

The Israeli military named the five killed as Ibrahim Jamal Ibrahim Al-Sheikh Ali; Faisal Abdallah Muhammad Abu Qamsan; Mohammed Ayad Khamis al-Ladaa; Ayman Nihad Abd Alrahman Jadi; and Fadi Ihab Muhammad Ramadan Hassouna.

It said "intelligence from multiple sources confirmed" that all were PIJ operatives, and that a list found during an operation in Gaza "explicitly identified four" of them as such.

In a statement, Quds Today said the men "were killed as they carried out their media and humanitarian duty".

As of 20 December, at least 133 Palestinian journalists have been killed during the course of the war, making it the deadliest conflict for journalists, according to the CPJ.

The press freedom organisation has called for accountability for Palestinian journalists who have been directly targeted by the Israeli military.

In a separate development, the director of the Kamal Adwan hospital on the northern edge of Gaza said on Thursday about 50 people, including five of its staff, had been killed in an Israeli strike on a building by the hospital. A paediatrician and two paramedics were among them.

At least another five people were also reported killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza City on Wednesday.

The Palestinian Wafa news agency, and the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, also said a further 20 people were injured in the city's al-Zeitoun neighbourhood.

The Israeli military has not commented on the reported bombing.

Meanwhile the father of a two-week-old Palestinian girl has told the BBC how his baby daughter froze to death in a tent in Gaza - the third child in a week to die in similar conditions.

Mahmoud Ismail Al-Faseeh said he woke up in the severe cold to find his daughter, Sila, suffering convulsions. She was rushed to hospital but died from hypothermia, the head of paediatrics at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis told the Associated Press news agency.

The family was sheltering in al-Mawasi area on Gaza's coast, a strip of land designated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as a humanitarian zone but which has been hit by air strikes.

Ahmed al-Farra, the head of paediatrics, said two other babies - one three days old and the other a month old - had been brought in over the past 48 hours after dying from hypothermia.

Hopes of progress towards a ceasefire in recent days have begun to recede, with Hamas and Israel blaming each other.

Hamas accused the Israeli government of imposing "new conditions" that it said were delaying the agreement.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the group was reneging on understandings that had already been reached about a possible ceasefire.

The latest statements mark a notable change of tone on both sides following optimistic signals.

The Israeli military launched air strikes and a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip in response to last year's Hamas attack. About 1,200 people were killed in the attack and another 251 taken back to Gaza as hostages.

More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's offensive, Gaza's health ministry says. Almost two million people - 90% of the population - have been displaced, according to the UN.

BBC
 
Israel forcibly evacuates Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza

One of northern Gaza's last functioning hospitals has been forcibly evacuated by the Israeli military, medics say, after dozens of people were reportedly killed in Israeli strikes targeting the area around the healthcare facility.

Eid Sabbah, head of the nursing department at Kamal Adwan hospital, told the BBC that at about 07:00 on Friday, the military gave the administration 15 minutes to evacuate patients and staff into its courtyard.

Israeli troops subsequently entered the hospital and were removing the remaining patients, he said.

The Israeli military said on Friday afternoon that it was carrying out an operation in the area of the hospital, which it called a "Hamas terrorist stronghold".

Israeli troops had "facilitated the secure evacuation of civilians, patients and medical personnel" from the hospital before beginning the operation, it added.

The military did not say where the patients would be moved. But earlier in the week, an Israeli official said that they intended to relocate those at Kamal Adwan hospital to the nearby Indonesian hospital, which was itself evacuated by the military on Tuesday.

Dr Sabbah said "it's dangerous because there are patients in the ICU department in a coma and in need of ventilation machines and moving them will put them in danger".

"If the army intends to continue removing these patients, they will need specialised vehicles."

Dr Yousef Abu-Al Rish, Gaza's deputy minister of health, later told the BBC that patients in a serious condition had been taken to the Indonesian hospital, which he said is not functioning due to there being no generators or water.

"You can't call it a hospital, it's more of a shelter. It's not equipped for patients," Dr Abu-Al Rish said.

The World Health Organization said the raid "has put this last major health facility in north Gaza out of service".

"Initial reports indicate that some key departments were severely burnt and destroyed during the raid," it posted on X on Friday evening.

Nadav Shoshani, international spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), said in a post on Friday evening on X that a "small fire broke out in an empty building inside the hospital that is under control".

This was when IDF troops were not inside the hospital, he said, adding that "after preliminary examination, no connection was found between IDF activity to the fire".

It comes hours after the director of Kamal Adwan hospital said that approximately 50 people had been killed, including five medical staff, in a series of Israeli air strikes targeting the vicinity of the hospital.

The statement from Dr Hussam Abu Safiya said a building opposite the hospital was targeted by Israeli warplanes, leading to the death of a paediatrician and a lab technician, as well as their families.

He said a third staff member who worked as a maintenance technician was targeted and killed as he rushed to the scene of the first strike.

Two of the hospital's paramedics were 500m (1,640ft) away from the hospital when they were targeted and killed by another strike, the statement continued, with their bodies remaining in the street with no-one able to reach them.

The Israeli military said on Friday morning that it was "unaware of strikes in the area of Kamal Adwan hospital" and was looking into the reports that staff had been killed.

Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia has been under a tightening Israeli blockade imposed on parts of northern Gaza since October, when the military said it had launched an offensive to stop Hamas from regrouping there.

The UN has said the area is under a "near-total siege" as the Israeli military heavy restricts access of aid deliveries to an area where an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 people remain.

In recent days, the hospital's administrators have issued desperate pleas appealing to be protected, as they say the facility has become regularly the target of Israeli shelling and explosives.

Oxfam said that attempts by aid agencies to deliver supplies to the area since October had been unsuccessful because of "deliberate delays and systematic obstructions" by the Israeli military.

BBC
 
Medical sources tell Al Jazeera that Israeli attacks have killed at least 30 people today, including nine in Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza and seven in Nuseirat in central Gaza.

An Israeli attack on the upper floor of al-Wafaa Hospital in Gaza City has killed at least seven people and wounded others, some critically, according to Gaza’s Civil Defence.


Al Jazeera
 

Criminal silence will ruin peace of many​

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'Global silence and abandonment’ as Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital destroyed​


The sound of tanks rumbling through the streets outside of Kamal Adwan Hospital woke everyone up, they were already on edge after enduring months of direct Israeli attacks.

Then came the loudspeakers ordering everyone to evacuate – the sick, the wounded, medical staff, and displaced people seeking shelter – early on Friday morning.

It was clear that the medical complex in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya was about to face an Israeli raid, like so many had before it as Israel seemed to systematically destroy all healthcare in Gaza.

NYT ‘investigates’ genocide, uncovers nothing but ‘loosened standards’

It didn’t matter that, according to the World Health Organization, the hospital was the last major health facility operational in northern Gaza, an area that has been suffocatingly besieged and decimated by Israel in its ongoing war.

Nor that it was a refuge for hundreds of Palestinians whose homes had been destroyed by Israel and had nowhere else to go.

Source: Al Jazeera
 
Israel probe says army actions had 'influence' on killing of six hostages by Hamas

An investigation by the Israeli military has found that the actions of their forces on the ground likely influenced the killing of six hostages in Gaza in August by Hamas.

It said the "ground activities in the area, although gradual and cautious, had a circumstantial influence on the terrorists' decision to murder the six hostages".

The probe also found that the soldiers were unaware of the hostages' presence when they began their operation in the Rafah area. The hostages' bodies were later recovered.

The killings sparked anger in Israel, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets demanding the government reach a ceasefire deal.

In late August, the Israeli troops found the bodies in an underground shaft in the Tal al-Sultan area of Rafah. The military said they were killed just before the soldiers reached them.

The probe said that Israel's chief of the general staff "concluded that this was a painful and tragic event, with the extremely difficult outcome of the brutal murder of six hostages by Hamas".

In a statement, The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said the investigation proved once again that the return of all those captured by Hamas during its deadly 7 October 2023 attack on Israel would only be possible through a deal.

The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced increased pressure, with critics saying he has not done enough to secure the release of the hostages.

Israel responded to the Hamas attack by launching air strikes and a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip.

More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed during the 14-month war between Israel and Hamas, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says. Almost 2m people - 90% of the population - have been displaced, according to the UN.

The UN and aid agencies have described the humanitarian situation in the enclave as "apocalyptic" and warned on several occasions that Gazans are on "the brink of famine" - accusing Israel of deliberately obstructing aid deliveries - something Israel denies.

According to Israel, 251 Israelis and foreigners were seized in last year's Hamas attack.

Ninety-six of them are believed to still be held, with the remainder released, rescued or their remains recovered. Sixty-two are believed by Israel to still be alive. Four other hostages have been held since 2014 and 2015.

Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza and secure the release of the remaining hostages are continuing.

Mr Netanyahu recently said that there had been "some progress" but that he could not say when the talks would be concluded. So far no breakthrough has been achieved - despite Palestinian officials telling the BBC they were very close to reaching a deal.

BBC
 
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Hamas police chief among 11 killed in Israeli strike on Gaza, medics say

An Israeli air strike on a tent camp sheltering displaced families in southern Gaza has killed at least 11 Palestinians, including the chief of the territory's Hamas-run police force, medics say.

Three children and two women were also reportedly among the dead in al-Mawasi, west of the city of Khan Younis.

The Hamas-run interior ministry condemned what it called the "assassination" of police director general Mahmoud Salah, and his assistant, Hussam Shahwan, who it said had been "performing their humanitarian and national duty".

The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.

The military has declared the sandy strip of land along the coast in al-Mawasi to be a "humanitarian zone" for Palestinians displaced by its war with Hamas. But it has repeatedly attacked it, accusing Hamas operatives of hiding among displaced civilians.

Recent cold, wet weather has worsened conditions in the makeshift camp.

In the past day, there have also been deadly Israeli air strikes in a suburb of Gaza City, further north in Jabalia, and in Bureij in central Gaza - from where the Israeli military said rockets were fired into southern Israel at the very start of the new year.

BBC
 

Palestinian Authority suspends Al Jazeera TV channel in West Bank​


The Palestinian Authority says it has suspended broadcasting by the prominent Arab channel Al Jazeera in parts of the occupied West Bank, citing incitement and bias.

Qatari-owned Al Jazeera expressed shock and denounced the decision as "an attempt to hide the truth about events in the occupied territories".

It links the closure to news coverage of the recent major crackdown by Palestinian security forces on armed Islamist groups in Jenin refugee camp where at least 11 people have been killed.

Al Jazeera, which is widely watched by Palestinians particularly for its exhaustive coverage of the Gaza war, has already been stopped in Arabic and English in Israel.

For the second time in months, Al Jazeera has broadcast the scene from within its own office in Ramallah as security forces enter and order it to close. Last year, it was Israeli soldiers who raided and this time, Palestinian police went in.

On Wednesday evening, a uniformed officer was shown handing an official order to an Al Jazeera correspondent who reads and signs it.

Fatah, the Palestinian faction which dominates the Palestinian Authority (PA), has accused the Al Jazeera network of sowing division in "our Arab homeland in general and in Palestine in particular". Al Jazeera insists it is impartial.

The PA, which cooperates with Israel on security, is increasingly unpopular with the Palestinian public and has little control over Jenin's urban refugee camp, historically seen as a stronghold for armed groups.

Since early December, its forces have been fighting members of the Jenin Battalion, most of whom are affiliated with Islamic Jihad or Hamas, whose 7 October 2023 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza.

Analysts say that the PA is trying to reassert its authority in the West Bank and prove its potential value to the incoming Trump administration. They suggest it may also want to show its ability to take a role in the future governance of Gaza.

However, ongoing events have drawn condemnation from many Palestinians.

"Al Jazeera has successfully maintained its professionalism throughout its coverage of the unfolding events in Jenin," it said in a statement earlier this week.

According to the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, Al Jazeera network has been deemed in violation of Palestinian laws and regulations and its operations suspended temporarily. The stoppage order applies to all work by its journalists and staff.

The network is accused of broadcasting "inciting materials" and "misleading reports" that "provoke strife and interfere in Palestinian internal affairs," Wafa said.

Israel's parliament voted to close Al Jazeera in Israel last May saying it threatened national security. Israeli police then raided a Jerusalem hotel room used by Al Jazeera for broadcasting and some of its equipment was confiscated. The channel's Arabic staff relocated to the West Bank.

In September, Israeli troops ordered the Al Jazeera office in Ramallah in the West Bank to close for 45 days claiming it was being used to support terrorist activities.

Israeli officials, including the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, have often accused Al Jazeera of being a mouthpiece for Hamas.

Israel has also accused Al Jazeera staff in Gaza of belonging to the Islamist group. In July, the Israeli military killed Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera reporter in Gaza City, claiming he was a member of Hamas' s armed wing. Al Jazeera strongly rejects all the allegations.

There is also a long history of hostility between Al Jazeera and the PA, with some PA officials accusing it of showing support for Hamas, a political rival of Fatah.

In 2011, Al Jazeera's publication of the so-called Palestine Papers, a leak of confidential files detailing years of negotiations between Israel and Palestinian teams, embarrassed PA officials who accused the network of distortion. The documents purported to show offers of major concessions to Israel.

Some Palestinian journalists have criticised the PA decision to bar Al Jazeera saying it comes against a background of an increasingly authoritarian crackdown on dissent. The Foreign Press Association expressed "grave concern" over the action saying that it "raises serious questions about press freedom and democratic values in the region."

www.bbc.com

Palestinian Authority suspends Al Jazeera TV channel in West Bank

The Foreign Press Association has said the move "raises serious questions about press freedom".
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
Israeli airstrikes kill Gaza head of police, 67 others, Gaza authorities say

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 68 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including at a tent camp where the head of the enclave's Hamas-controlled police force, his deputy and nine displaced people died, Gaza authorities said.

Israel said the deputy was the head of Palestinian militant group Hamas' security forces in southern Gaza.
The attack occurred in the Al-Mawasi district, which was designated as a humanitarian zone for civilians earlier in the 14-month-old war between Israel and Hamas, which rules Gaza.


 

Israeli attacks kill dozens in Gaza with ceasefire talks set to resume​


At least 30 Palestinians have been killed in multiple Israeli attacks on Gaza, hospital staff said, as high-level negotiators prepare to resume stalled ceasefire talks

Staff at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza said on Friday that more than a dozen women and children were among those killed in strikes on the Nuseirat refugee camp, az-Zawayda, al-Maghazi camp and Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.

Medical sources told Al Jazeera that at least 19 people were killed in the attacks in central Gaza.

Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said Friday was shaping up to be “another bloody day”, following a 24-hour period in which at least 77 Palestinians were killed in 34 Israeli air attacks, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Abu Azzoum said gunfire in Deir el-Balah suggested a “potential military advance by Israeli ground forces” in response to a Hamas attack on an Israeli tank in the area.

Israeli fighter jets destroyed buildings in the centre of the Strip, killing journalist Omar al-Diraoui in his home in az-Zawayda – the second journalist to be killed in 24 hours.

On Thursday, it was confirmed that photographer Hassan al-Qishaoui had been killed in an Israeli attack.

Following the deaths, Gaza’s Government Media Office revised its toll of journalists killed in the enclave since the beginning of the nearly 15-month war to 202.

In southern Gaza, the civil defence said its teams recovered the bodies of two Palestinians who were killed in an attack on the Khirbet al-Adas area, near Rafah, while two others were injured and taken to the nearby Nasser Hospital.

Source: Al Jazeera
 
This war mongering Criminal is on his last legs, yet his evil intentions never fail to disappoint. Cant wait for the day when he's history.

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The US Department of State has notified Congress of a planned $8bn (£6.4bn) arms sale to Israel, an American official has confirmed to the BBC.

The weapons consignment, which needs approval from House and Senate committees, includes missiles, shells and other munitions.

The move comes just over a fortnight before President Joe Biden leaves office. Washington has rejected calls to suspend military backing for Israel because of the number of civilians killed during the war in Gaza.

In August, the US approved the sale of $20bn in fighter jets and other military equipment to Israel.

The latest planned shipment contains air-to-air missiles, Hellfire missiles, artillery shells and bombs, the US official said.

A source familiar with the sale told the BBC on Saturday: "The President has made clear Israel has a right to defend its citizens, consistent with international law and international humanitarian law, and to deter aggression from Iran and its proxy organisations.

"We will continue to provide the capabilities necessary for Israel's defence."

Biden has often described US support for Israel as iron-clad.

The US is by far the biggest supplier of arms to Israel, having helped it build one of the most technologically sophisticated militaries in the world.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the US accounted for 69% of Israel's imports of major conventional arms between 2019 and 2023.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group's unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 45,580 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

www.bbc.co.uk

Biden plans to send $8bn arms shipment to Israel

The weapons consignment, which needs approval from House and Senate committees, includes air-to-air missiles.
www.bbc.co.uk
 
Palestinian Journalists Syndicate: Israel killed 10 journalists killed in December

In a statement, the syndicate said that five of the victims were killed in a “brutal attack while inside a live broadcast vehicle”, adding that eight family members of journalists were killed, three journalists’ homes were destroyed and five journalists were “severely injured”.

The committee said that about 20 reporters had been detained and banned from covering events, while seven others were imprisoned.

The association reiterated its commitment to defending press freedoms and “exposing the crimes” of the Israeli forces.

From October 7, 2023, to December 25, 2024, at least 217 journalists and media workers had been killed in Gaza. Five more were killed on December 26, when an Israeli air strike hit a news van near al-Awda Hospital.

Medical services in Gaza under attack as injured doctor returns to duty

Doctors in Gaza are overwhelmed as they treat people injured in Israeli attacks in what remains of the Strip’s medical infrastructure.

Medical workers themselves are often casualties of war, and one doctor who was wounded is now returning to work.

Al Jazeera
 
WHO chief calls attention to hypothermia risk for newborns in Gaza

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says on X that “more children are in danger” than those infants who have already frozen to death in the Gaza Strip.

Per our reporting, eight babies have died this winter season of hypothermia, amid a severe shortage of housing and supplies like winter clothing and blankets, in scarce supply in the Gaza Strip because of Israel’s restrictions on letting aid in.

“Every child deserves a healthy and safe start in life, but the children of Gaza are paying the price of war with their own lives”, Tedros wrote.

At least seven newborns died of hypothermia in #Gaza in December, and more children are in danger.

Every child deserves a healthy and safe start in life, but the children of Gaza are paying the price of war with their own lives. Ceasefire!

Source: Al Jazeera
 
Hamas stands by demand for end to Gaza war under hostage deal, as Trump deadline nears

Hamas stood by its demand on Tuesday that Israel fully end its assault on Gaza under any deal to release hostages, and said U.S. President-elect Donald Trump was rash to say there would be "hell to pay" unless they go free by his Jan. 20 inauguration.

Officials from the Islamist group and Israel have been holding talks with Qatari and Egyptian mediators in the most intensive effort for months to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.

The outgoing U.S. administration has called for a final push for a deal before Joe Biden leaves office, and many in the region now view Trump's inauguration as an unofficial deadline.

But with the clock ticking, both sides accuse the other of blocking a deal by adhering to conditions that torpedoed all previous peace efforts for more than a year.

Hamas says it will free its remaining hostages only if Israel agrees to end the war and withdraw all its troops from Gaza. Israel says it will not end the war until Hamas is dismantled and all hostages are free.

"Hamas is the only obstacle to the release of the hostages," the director general of Israel's foreign ministry, Eden Bar Tal, told a briefing with reporters, saying Israel was fully committed to reaching a deal.

Hamas official Osama Hamdan, who held a news conference in Algiers, said Israel was to blame for undermining all efforts to reach a deal.

While he said he would not give details about the latest round of negotiations, he reiterated the Hamas conditions of "a complete end to the aggression and a full withdrawal from lands the occupation invaded".

Commenting on Trump's threat that there would be "hell to pay" unless all hostages were freed before the inauguration, Hamdan said: "I think the U.S. president must make more disciplined and diplomatic statements."

Israel has sent a team of mid-ranking officials to Qatar for talks brokered by Qatari and Egyptian mediators. Some Arabic media reports said David Barnea, the head of Mossad, who has been leading negotiations, was expected to join them. The Israeli prime minister's office did not comment.

In one notable step towards a deal, a Hamas official told Reuters on Sunday the group had cleared a list submitted by Israel of 34 hostages who could be freed in the initial phase of a truce, alongside Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

The list included female Israeli soldiers, plus elderly, female and minor-aged civilians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel had so far received no confirmation about whether those on its list were still alive.

ISRAEL KEEPS UP AIRSTRIKES

Nearly 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's assault on Gaza, according to health officials in the enclave. The assault was launched after Hamas fighters stormed Israeli territory in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israeli military strikes killed at least 24 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, medics said, as the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory urged international donors to immediately provide fuel to run generators and maintain medical services.

One of those strikes killed four people in a house in Gaza City and six were killed in separate strikes across the enclave, medics said.

Later on Tuesday, an Israeli strike on a tent in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip killed four children and eight Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in Jabalia in the north, medics said.

Additionally, an Israeli strike on a car in Khan Younis killed two people, medics and civil emergency service officials said.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on those strikes.

It said 240 Palestinians its forces had detained in a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza last month had provided "substantial intelligence".

The military released footage of the interrogation of a purported Hamas militant who detailed how militants "operated from the hospital area" and transferred weapons to and from it.

Hamas and the Gaza health ministry deny any armed presence at the hospital.

SOURCE: https://www.reuters.com/world/middl...ge-deal-trump-deadline-approaches-2025-01-07/
 
Israeli strikes kills 19 in southern Gaza, health officials say

At least 19 Palestinians, including eight children, were killed in Israeli air strikes in southern Gaza overnight, local health officials say.

A mother and her four children were reportedly killed when a tent camp for displaced people in al-Mawasi was hit, while another a couple and their children died in the nearby city of Khan Younis.

The Israeli military said it conducted several strikes targeting Hamas fighters who took part in the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza.

Deadly strikes were also reported in central and northern Gaza, with the Hamas-run health ministry saying a total of 51 people had been killed across the territory in the past 24 hours.

In the north, the bodies of at least six people, including a baby, were recovered from two houses in Gaza City which were hit, according to the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency.

Meanwhile, three people were killed in a strike in the central town of Deir al-Balah, while another infant was killed in the nearby, urban Bureij refugee camp, medics said.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on those strikes.

Gaza's health ministry also issued an urgent appeal for fuel to operate the generators of hospitals in the south. It warned that the generators would stop functioning within hours, putting the lives of hundreds of patients at risk.

It came as indirect talks on a ceasefire and hostage release deal continued in Qatar, where US President-elect Donald Trump's Middle East envoy said "a lot of progress" had been made.

Stephen Witkoff told a news conference in Florida on Tuesday that he would soon travel to Doha to join the negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egyptian and US officials.

"I'm really hopeful that by the inaugural, we'll have some good things to announce on behalf of the president," he added.

Trump meanwhile repeated his threat that "all hell will break out in the Middle East" if Hamas does not release the 100 hostages it is still holding before he takes office on 20 January.

Hamas and Israel have accused each other of obstructing progress towards a deal.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group's 7 October 2023 attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 45,930 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.

BBC
 
Death toll from Israel’s war on Gaza surpasses 46,000

MSF sounds alarm over lack of fuel, saying patients in Gaza hospitals are ‘at risk’

Israeli attacks have killed at least 70 Palestinians and injured 104 others across the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, according to the besieged territory’s Health Ministry.

More than 800 parents of Israeli soldiers and reservists have called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the bloody war, saying they don’t want Gaza “to become our child’s cemetery”.

Newly elected Lebanese President Joseph Aoun vows to defend the “state’s right to exclusively carry weapons” in an apparent message to Hezbollah after the group’s devastating war with Israel.

An Israeli attack on a school in Jabalia in northern Gaza kills three people, including a woman and a child, the Palestinian Civil Defence says.
Israel’s genocide in Gaza has killed at least 46,006 Palestinians and wounded 109,378 since October 7, 2023. At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks that day and more than 200 taken captive.

Ramifications of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza ‘will echo for generations’

As the Gaza death toll surpasses 46,000, daily life in Gaza is a mix of hardship, relentless physical and psychological trauma, and a battle for survival.

Over the course of 15 months, normal life has been nearly impossible. People here have been sleeping and waking up to the sound of bombardments.

They have lost the vast majority of their property, including houses, businesses, and have to live in open-air encampments, makeshift shelters that lack all sorts of necessities.

People here believe that the ramifications of the genocide being committed during the ongoing war will echo for generations.

Source: Al Jazeera
 
US, Arab mediators make some progress in Gaza peace talks, no deal yet, sources say

U.S. and Arab mediators have made some progress in their efforts to reach a ceasefire accord between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, but not enough to seal a deal, Palestinian sources close to the talks said on Thursday.

As talks continued in Qatar, the Israeli military carried out strikes across the enclave, killing at least 23 people on Thursday, Palestinian medics said.

The deaths brought to 76 the number of people killed by Israeli strikes across Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the territory's health ministry.

Qatar, the U.S. and Egypt are making a major push to reach a deal to halt fighting in the 15-month conflict and free remaining hostages held by Islamist group Hamas before President Joe Biden leaves office.

President-elect Donald Trump has warned there will be "hell to pay" if the hostages are not released by his inauguration on Jan. 20.

On Thursday, a Palestinian official close to the mediation effort said the absence of a deal so far did not mean the talks were going nowhere and this was the most serious attempt so far.


 
Gaza war toll likely significantly undercounts deaths, says study

n official Palestinian tally of direct deaths in the Israel-Hamas war likely undercounted the number of casualties by 41% through the middle of 2024 as the Gaza Strip's healthcare infrastructure unravelled, according to a study published on Thursday.

The peer-reviewed statistical analysis published in The Lancet journal was conducted by academics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Yale University and other institutions.

Using a statistical method called capture-recapture analysis, the researchers sought to assess the death toll from Israel's air and ground campaign in Gaza in the first nine months of the war, between October 2023 and the end of June 2024.

They estimated 64,260 deaths due to traumatic injury during this period, about 41% higher than the official Palestinian Health Ministry count. The study said 59.1% were women, children and people over the age of 65. It did not provide an estimate of Palestinian combatants among the dead.

More than 46,000 people have been killed in the Gaza war, according to Palestinian health officials.

The war began on Oct. 7, after Hamas gunmen stormed across the border with Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

The Lancet study said the Palestinian health ministry's capacity for maintaining electronic death records had previously proven reliable, but deteriorated under Israel's military campaign, which has included raids on hospitals and other healthcare facilities and disruptions to digital communications.

Israel says it goes to great lengths to avoid civilians deaths and accuses Hamas of using hospitals as cover for its operations, which the militant group denies.

STUDY METHOD EMPLOYED IN OTHER CONFLICTS

Anecdotal reports suggested that a significant number of dead remained buried in the rubble of destroyed buildings and were therefore not included in some tallies.

To better account for such gaps, the Lancet study employed a method used to evaluate deaths in other conflict zones, including Kosovo and Sudan.

Using data from at least two independent sources, researchers look for individuals who appear on multiple lists of those killed. Less overlap between lists suggests more deaths have gone unrecorded, information that can be used to estimate the full number of deaths.

For the Gaza study, researchers compared the official Palestinian Health Ministry death count, which in the first months of war was based entirely on bodies that arrived in hospitals but later came to include other methods; an online survey distributed by the health ministry to Palestinians inside and outside the Gaza Strip, who were asked to provide data on Palestinian ID numbers, names, age at death, sex, location of death, and reporting source; and obituaries posted on social media.

"Our research reveals a stark reality: the true scale of traumatic injury deaths in Gaza is higher than reported," lead author Zeina Jamaluddine told Reuters.

SOURCE: https://www.reuters.com/world/middl...tly-undercounts-deaths-says-study-2025-01-09/
 
Gaza war death toll could be 40% higher, says study

An official Palestinian tally of direct deaths in the Israel-Hamas war likely undercounted the number of casualties by around 40% in the first nine months of the war as the Gaza Strip's healthcare infrastructure unravelled, according to a study published on Thursday.

The peer-reviewed statistical analysis published in The Lancet journal was conducted by academics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Yale University and other institutions.

Using a statistical method called capture-recapture analysis, the researchers sought to assess the death toll from Israel's air and ground campaign in Gaza between October 2023 and the end of June 2024.

They estimated 64,260 deaths due to traumatic injury during this period, about 41% higher than the official Palestinian Health Ministry count. The study said 59.1% were women, children and people over the age of 65. It did not provide an estimate of Palestinian combatants among the dead.


 
Gaza ceasefire deal being finalised, Palestinian official tells BBC

The terms of a deal between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages are being finalised, a Palestinian official familiar with the negotiations has told the BBC.

It comes as US President Joe Biden said a deal was "on the brink" of coming to fruition, and that his administration was working urgently on the matter.

An Israeli official also told news agency Reuters that negotiations were in "advanced stages", with a deal possible in "hours, days or more".

US President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, and with Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar - who is mediating the negotiations - on Monday.

The Palestinian official told the BBC that Hamas and Israeli officials were conducting indirect talks in the same building on Monday.

Revealing some potential details of the agreement, the official stated that "the detailed technical discussions took considerable time".

Both sides agreed that Hamas would release three hostages on the first day of the agreement, after which Israel would begin withdrawing the troops from populated areas.

Seven days later, Hamas would release four additional hostages, and Israel would allow displaced people in the southern to return to the north, but only on foot via the coastal road.

Cars, animal-drawn carts, and trucks would be permitted to cross through a passage adjacent to Salah al-Din Road, monitored by an X-ray machine operated by a Qatari-Egyptian technical security team.

The agreement includes provisions for Israeli forces to remain in the Philadelphi corridor and maintain an 800-meter buffer zone along the eastern and northern borders during the first phase, which will last 42 days.

Israel has also agreed to release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, including approximately 190 who have been serving sentences of 15 years or more. In exchange, Hamas will release 34 hostages.

Negotiations for the second and third phases of the agreement would begin on the 16th day of the ceasefire.

The father of an Israeli-American hostage told the BBC's Newshour that he "wants to believe" that Israel has "gotten to 'yes'" on a deal.

Jonathan Dekel-Chen said he "lives in terror" every day because of his fears for his son, Sagui.

With increasing reports that a deal was close, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said a deal could be done "this week" - the final week of Biden's presidency.

Biden was due to speak with Egypt's President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, he added.

President-elect Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, was also present in Doha.

Trump previously threatened that "all hell" would break loose if the hostages were not released before he took office on 20 January.

Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told reporters that progress had been made and that the deal looked "much better than previously".

But the latest developments come as Netanyahu faces fierce opposition to a potential deal from within his governing coalition.

Ten right-wing members, including some from Netanyahu's own Likud party, have sent him a letter opposing a truce.

As talks took place, Gaza's civil defence agency reported that a wave of Israeli air strikes on Gaza City on Monday had killed more than 50 people.

"They bombed schools, homes and even gatherings of people," civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

The Israeli military said it was looking into these reports. Separately, it said five soldiers were killed on Monday in the north of the Gaza Strip.

The war was triggered by Hamas's attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken to Gaza as hostages.

Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says more than 46,500 people have been killed during the war.

Israel says 94 of the hostages remain in Gaza, of whom 34 are presumed dead, as well as another four Israelis who were abducted before the war, two of whom are dead.

BBC
 
BouncerGuy said:
Trump previously threatened that "all hell" would break loose if the hostages were not released before he took office on 20 January.

Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told reporters that progress had been made and that the deal looked "much better than previously".
Click to expand...
That's a shot caller. No BS given.

Trump. Respect.
 
We urge ‘both sides to end this now’: Qatar’s al-Ansari on Gaza war

Continuing his remarks, the Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson said, “This war should have been over a long time ago.”

“The humanitarian cost of the ongoing war is unbearable and it continues to be unbearable for the people of Gaza and for the security and stability of this region,” Majed al-Ansari said.

“We again call on both parties to seriously engage in the negotiations, which is happening right now, and we do applaud the fact that the negotiations are taking place, but we also are urging both sides to end this now and sign the agreement as soon as possible so that the people of Gaza can have the respite that they need,” he added.

Source: Al Jazeera
 
Gaza ceasefire negotiations ‘right on the brink’ as mediators meet in Qatar

Negotiators met in Doha on Tuesday in an effort to hammer out the final details of a ceasefire in Gaza, as the warring sides were reported to be closing in on a deal and the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the negotiations were “right on the brink”.

Israeli media and reports from the Qatari capital said the agreement would involve an initial release of 33 Israeli hostages, including children, women, elderly people and the sick, and up to 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, alongside a partial Israeli troop withdrawal in a first phase lasting 60 days.

After 16 days, talks would begin on a second phase of the agreement which would involve the release of other survivors among the 61 remaining hostages, including military-age men, and the bodies of those who have died. The Israeli military withdrawal would be completed in the course of this second stage.

Envoys representing the Biden White House and the incoming Trump administration are taking part in what was billed as a “final round” of talks, meeting delegates from Israel, Egypt and Qatar.

The US president-elect, Donald Trump, said negotiators were “very close” to finalising a deal that could halt the fighting which has claimed at least 45,000 Palestinian lives and left Gaza’s 2.3 million residents facing catastrophic conditions.

“I understand that there has been a handshake and they are getting it finished – maybe by the end of the week,” Trump told Newsmax on Monday night, as his envoy Steve Witkoff participated in the negotiations in Doha.

“The truth of the matter is that this ceasefire and peace deal is being driven by Trump’s team,” one Pentagon official told the Guardian. “And Biden, Blinken and the whole administration secured its legacy as enablers.”

Blinken said on Tuesday that the negotiations were “right on the brink” but a deal had not been concluded yet.

“It’s closer than it’s ever been before,” he said during a speech at the Atlantic Council. “But, right now, as we sit here, we await final word from Hamas on its acceptance, and until we get that word, we’ll remain on the brink.”

Blinken on Tuesday indicated that Israel had agreed to a deal and that mediators were now waiting for a response from Hamas. The Associated Press on Tuesday evening reported that Hamas had accepted the draft agreement for a ceasefire and the release of hostages, citing two anonymous sources involved in the talks. That information has not been confirmed by the group publicly and an Israeli official told the news agency that details of the agreement were still being finalized.

In the speech, Blinken also outlined a vision for a postwar settlement under which Israel would accept a united leadership of Gaza and the West Bank territories under a reformed Palestinian Authority, and criticised the expansion of both official and illegal settlements. Israel has so far rejected those conditions.

Blinken’s plan envisions significant involvement from the international community and Arab countries, including the possibility of deploying troops to stabilise security and facilitate humanitarian aid delivery. He also assessed that Hamas had “recruited almost as many new militants as it’s lost”.

Optimism over the negotiations has been tempered by past experience after earlier apparent breakthroughs ultimately failed to end the 15-month war in the face of opposition from the coalition government of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, or obstruction from Hamas inside Gaza. The militant group is being led by Mohammed Sinwar, brother of Yahya Sinwar, the former head of Hamas and the mastermind of the 7 October attacks who was killed by Israel last October after a year-long manhunt.

Despite the talks, fighting in Gaza has continued. Late on Monday night, two Israeli airstrikes in the central city of Deir al-Balah killed two women and their four children, aged between 1 month and nine years old. Another 12 people were killed in two strikes on the southern city of Khan Younis.

Separately, at least six Palestinians were killed and several were injured late on Tuesday in an Israeli strike on Jenin in the West Bank.

Israel’s security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, declared his continued opposition to the agreement in a social media post on Tuesday in which he boasted that he and other far-right members of the coalition had blocked a ceasefire “time after time” in recent months. He appealed to a fellow hardliner, Bezalel Smotrich, to join his party in walking out of the coalition if Netanyahu accepted the deal under discussion.

On Monday, Smotrich, the head of one of the parties in the ruling coalition, denounced the agreement being worked out in Qatar as a “surrender” deal. “The deal that is taking shape is a catastrophe for the national security of the state of Israel,” he said.

Writing in the Haaretz newspaper, the military analyst Amos Harel said the weakest point in the blueprint being negotiated in Doha was the transition from the first to second phase.

“Negotiations on the second phase are supposed to begin on the 16th day after it is signed, while the first phase is being implemented,” Harel wrote. “The understandable fear shared by the hostage families is that these talks will collapse, and that the only hostages that will be brought back are those from the first, humanitarian phase, namely women, elderly men, the sick and the wounded. Soldiers and young men will remain captives of Hamas for a long time as an insurance policy on the lives of the organisation’s leaders.”

Biden proposed a phased ceasefire plan in May last year, claiming it was an Israeli-approved blueprint, but he was repeatedly frustrated by Netanyahu’s obstruction. Trump has reportedly sent repeated messages to Netanyahu that he wants the fighting to be over before he takes office on 20 January.

On Tuesday, representatives from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum met Netanyahu, who told them that talks were advancing and he was “doing everything he can to bring about the release of all hostages”, according to Israel’s Channel 12.

“There are radical members such as Ben-Gvir and Smotrich who are obstructing the deal,’’ Moshe Emilio Lavi, the brother-in-law of one of the hostages held by Hamas, told the Guardian. “They are exploiting the hostage deal because they have other interests, like re-establishing settlements in northern Gaza. I just hope the government is not going to make an unwise decision this time.’’

SOURCE: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...al-in-final-stages-as-mediators-meet-in-qatar
 
Hamas OKs draft agreement of a Gaza ceasefire and the release of some hostages, officials say

Hamas has accepted a draft agreement for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of dozens of hostages, two officials involved in the talks said Tuesday. Mediators from the United States and Qatar said Israel and the Palestinian militant group were at the closest point yet to sealing a deal to bring them a step closer to ending 15 months of war.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the proposed agreement, and an Egyptian official and a Hamas official confirmed its authenticity. An Israeli official said progress has been made, but the details are being finalized. All three officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the talks.

“I believe we will get a ceasefire,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a speech Tuesday, asserting it was up to Hamas. “It’s right on the brink. It’s closer than it’s ever been before,” and word could come within hours, or days.

The United States, Egypt and Qatar have spent the past year trying to mediate an end to the war and secure the release of dozens of hostages captured in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered it. Nearly 100 people are still captive inside Gaza, and the military believes at least a third are dead.

AP correspondent Haya Panjwani reports on Secretary of State Blinken’s remarks on Mideast tensions.

Any deal is expected to pause the fighting and bring hopes for winding down the most deadly and destructive war Israel and Hamas have ever fought, a conflict that has destabilized the Middle East and sparked worldwide protests.

Draft of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal

PHASE 1: (42 days)

  • Hamas releases 33 hostages, including female civilians and soldiers, children and civilians over 50
  • Israel releases 30 Palestinian prisoners for each civilian hostage and 50 for each female soldier
  • Halt to fighting, Israeli forces move out of populated areas to the edges of the Gaza Strip
  • Displaced Palestinians begin returning home, more aid enters the strip
PHASE 2: (42 days)

  • Declaration of “sustainable calm”
  • Hamas frees remaining male hostages (soldiers and civilians) in exchange for a yet-to-be-negotiated number of Palestinian prisoners and a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.
PHASE 3:

  • Bodies of deceased Israeli hostages exchanged for bodies of deceased Palestinian fighters
  • Implementation of a reconstruction plan in Gaza
  • Border crossings for movement in and out of Gaza are reopened
It would bring relief to the hard-hit Gaza Strip, where Israel’s offensive has reduced large areas to rubble and displaced around 90% of the population of 2.3 million, many at risk of famine.

If a deal is reached, it would not go into effect immediately. The plan would need approval from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Security Cabinet and then his full Cabinet. Both are dominated by Netanyahu allies and are likely to approve any proposal he presents.

Officials have have expressed optimism before, only for negotiations to stall while the warring sides blamed each other. But they now suggest they can conclude an agreement ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, whose Mideast envoy has joined the negotiations.

Hamas said in a statement that negotiations had reached their “final stage.”

In the Oct. 7 attack, Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted another 250. Around half those hostages were freed during a brief ceasefire in November 2023. Of those remaining, families say, two are children, 13 are women and 83 are men.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 46,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants.

Israeli airstrikes on two homes in central Gaza killed at least 17 Palestinians late Tuesday and wounded seven more, hospital officials said, adding that some of the corpses had been dismembered. Earlier strikes killed at least 18 people, including two women and four children, according to local health officials, who said one woman was pregnant and the baby died as well.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel says it only targets militants and accuses them of hiding among civilians.

A three-phase agreement

The three-phase agreement — based on a framework laid out by U.S. President Joe Biden and endorsed by the U.N. Security Council — would begin with the release of 33 hostages over a six-week period, including women, children, older adults and wounded civilians in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian women and children imprisoned by Israel.

Among the 33 would be five female Israeli soldiers, each to be released in exchange for 50 Palestinian prisoners, including 30 militants who are serving life sentences.

The Israeli official said Israel assumes most of the 33 are alive.

During this 42-day phase, Israeli forces would withdraw from population centers, Palestinians could start returning to what remains of their homes in northern Gaza and there would be a surge of humanitarian aid, with some 600 trucks entering each day.

Details of the second phase still must be negotiated during the first. Those details remain difficult to resolve — and the deal does not include written guarantees that the ceasefire will continue until a deal is reached. That means Israel could resume its military campaign after the first phase ends.

The Israeli official said “detailed negotiations” on the second phase will begin during the first. He said Israel will retain some “assets” throughout negotiations, referring to a military presence, and would not leave the Gaza Strip until all hostages are home.

The three mediators have given Hamas verbal guarantees that negotiations will continue as planned and that they will press for a deal to implement the second and third phases before the end of the first, the Egyptian official said.

The deal would allow Israel throughout the first phase to remain in control of the Philadelphi corridor, the band of territory along Gaza’s border with Egypt, which Hamas had initially demanded Israel withdraw from. Israel would withdraw from the Netzarim corridor, a belt across central Gaza where it had sought a mechanism for searching Palestinians for arms when they return to the territory’s north.

In the second phase, Hamas would release the remaining living captives, mainly male soldiers, in exchange for more prisoners and the “complete withdrawal” of Israeli forces from Gaza, according to the draft agreement.

Hamas has said it will not free the remaining hostages without an end to the war and a complete Israeli withdrawal, while Netanyahu has vowed in the past to resume fighting until Hamas’ military and governing capabilities are eliminated.

Unless an alternative government for Gaza is worked out in those talks, it could leave Hamas in charge of the territory.

In a third phase, the bodies of remaining hostages would be returned in exchange for a three- to five-year reconstruction plan for Gaza under international supervision.

Blinken on Tuesday was making a last-minute case for a proposal for Gaza’s postwar reconstruction and governance that outlines how it could be run without Hamas in charge.

AP NEWS
 

Israel expects Gaza deal within the next day​

The Israeli government expects that an agreement on a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza will be announced later Wednesday or Thursday, two sources familiar with the matter have told CNN.

“We are very close,” one of the sources said.

Major progress has been made, the sources said. If a deal is finalized, implementation would most likely start on Sunday.

Even once Hamas and Israel negotiators in Doha agree to the deal, Israel’s security cabinet and full cabinet will still need to approve the agreement with a simple majority. The Israeli Supreme Court would then hear petitions opposing the release of the Palestinians due to be granted their freedom as part of the agreement.

The Israel Prime Minister’s Office denied on Wednesday reports that Hamas had agreed to the deal: “Contrary to reports, the terrorist organization Hamas has not yet responded to the deal.”

Source: CNN
 
Israel and Hamas agree Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, source says

Israel and Hamas agree to a deal that will pause fighting in Gaza and lead to the phased release of hostages and Palestinian prisoners, source says

Implementation is likely to start on Sunday. Hamas is expected to release 33 hostages during the first phase of an emerging deal. Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are set to be released from Israeli jails at the same time.

The release of the hostages would be the first phase of the deal being finalized. Negotiations to reach the second phase – which is intended to end the war – would begin on the 16th day of the implementation of the deal.


CNN
 

Eight Palestinians killed as Israeli forces launch major operation in Jenin​


At least eight Palestinians have been killed and 35 injured by Israeli security forces during a major operation in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry says.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military, police and Shin Bet security service had launched an "extensive and significant" operation to "defeat terrorism" in Jenin, which is seen as a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups.

Palestinian media said Israeli forces moved into Jenin and its refugee camp following several drone strikes.

It comes just three days after the start of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in Gaza and highlights the threat of more violence in the West Bank.

A statement from Israel's prime minister said the operation, dubbed "Iron Wall", was an "additional step in achieving the objective we have set: bolstering security" in the West Bank.

"We are acting methodically and with determination against the Iranian axis wherever it reaches: in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and [the West Bank] - and we are still active," he added.

Israel accuses Iran of smuggling weapons and funds to Hamas, PIJ and other armed groups in the West Bank to foment unrest.

Israeli media cited a military source as saying that the goals of the operation were to preserve its "freedom of action" in the West Bank, dismantle armed groups' infrastructure, and eliminate imminent threats. The source also said the operation would continue for "as long as necessary".

Jenin's governor, Kamal Abu al-Rub, told AFP news agency that "what is happening is an invasion of the camp".

"It came quickly, Apache [helicopters] in the sky and Israeli military vehicles everywhere," he added.

The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, cited local sources as saying that Israeli forces were "completely besieging" Jenin camp, and that armoured bulldozers had dug up several streets.

It also cited the director of Jenin's Government hospital, Wissam Bakr, as saying that three doctors and two nurses were among those wounded by Israeli gunfire.

The Israeli raid follows a weeks-long operation by Palestinian security forces against armed groups in Jenin camp that sought to restore the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority's control.

An AFP journalist said PA security personnel withdrew from some of their positions around the camp before the Israeli forces moved in.

Hamas condemned the Israeli operation in Jenin and called on Palestinians in the West Bank to escalate attacks against Israeli forces there in response.

There has been a spike in violence in the West Bank since Hamas's deadly attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the ensuing war in Gaza.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed as Israeli forces have intensified their raids, saying they are trying to stem deadly Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the West Bank and Israel.

In another development in the West Bank overnight, groups of masked Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians, smashing cars and burning homes.

It happened just as new US President Donald Trump announced that he was lifting sanctions on violent settlers imposed by the Biden administration.

A far-right Israeli minister welcomed the reversal in US policy, while Palestinian officials said it would encourage further violence.

Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

Source: BBC
 

At least 70 killed in occupied West Bank in 2025: Ministry​


The Palestinian Ministry of Health says at least 70 people, including 10 children, have been killed by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank since the start of the year.

That includes 38 killed in Jenin; 15 in Tubas; six in Nablus; five in Tulkarem; three in Hebron; two in Bethlehem; and one in Jerusalem.

In addition to the 10 children, the Israeli military killed one woman and two elderly Palestinians, the ministry said

Source: Al Jazeera
 

Israeli tanks move into the occupied West Bank for the first time since 2002 amid growing crackdown​


JENIN, West Bank (AP) — Israeli tanks have moved into the occupied West Bank for the first time since 2002, shortly after the defense minister said troops will remain “for the coming year” in parts of the territory and indicated that Palestinians who have fled cannot return.

Associated Press journalists saw a handful of tanks move Sunday into Jenin, long a bastion of armed struggle against Israel.

Israel is deepening its crackdown on the Palestinian territory and has said it is determined to stamp out militancy amid a rise in attacks. It launched the offensive in the northern West Bank on Jan. 21 — two days after the current ceasefire in Gaza took hold — and expanded it to nearby areas.

Palestinians view such raids as part of an effort to cement Israeli control over the territory, where 3 million Palestinians live under military rule. The deadly raids have caused destruction in urban areas.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to “increase the intensity of the activity to thwart terrorism” in all refugee camps in the West Bank.

apnews.com

Israeli tanks move into the occupied West Bank for the first time since 2002 amid growing crackdown

Associated Press journalists saw a handful of tanks move Sunday into Jenin, long a bastion of armed struggle against Israel.
apnews.com apnews.com
 
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