Skip to main content
Live blog update| Israel's war on Gaza

Evening recap

Our live blog will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are the day's key developments:

- Israeli air strikes killed nearly 20 people in northern Gaza on Wednesday, marking the new year, and left dozens of others wounded. In December alone, Israel had launched over 1,400 airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, its air force said. 

Israeli forces have killed at least 17,400 children in Gaza, including 1,091 infants, 238 of whom were born and died during the ongoing war, according to Palestinian officials and Gaza’s government media office, as reported by Al Jazeera. This equates to one child killed every 30 minutes, with thousands more likely buried under the rubble.

- The Palestinian Authority (PA) has "temporarily suspended" Al Jazeera from broadcasting from the West Bank, accusing it of airing material the PA considers "incitement", the news outlet said on Wednesday. The PA last month banned Al Jazeera from reporting in Jenin, where the PA has been targeting armed resistance movements to the Israeli occupation. 

- Former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, who faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes in Gaza, resigned from the Knesset on Wednesday. "There are moments when you need to stop," Gallant said, adding that he plans to remain a part of the Likud Party in Israel despite leaving political life. 

South African physician and UN special rapporteur on the right to health, Tlaleng Mofokeng, joined the global social media campaign on Wednesday to call for the release of the medical director of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiyeh, who has been in Israeli custody for three days. 

Israeli broadcaster Channel 13, citing sources close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, says Gaza ceasefire negotiations are ongoing and "making progress". And while US President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration date is just three weeks away, it does not factor into the timing of a ceasefire announcement, the sources said.