Live: Israel kills at least 58 Palestinians in 24 hours
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Here are the day's key developments:
- The death toll from the continued Israeli onslaught on Gaza has reached 45,317, with 107,713 wounded
- Cats were seen eating the corpses of Palestinians in central Gaza amid a devastating Israeli incursion that has killed scores and blocked rescue workers from assisting victims
- Israel confirmed publicly on Monday for the first time that it assassinated Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital of Tehran
- The fate of the hostages held by Hamas depends on advances made by the Israeli military in some areas, said Abu Obaida, spokesman of the Qassam Brigades
- The number of Palestinians wounded by Israeli gunfire during the ongoing raid on Qalandiya camp in the occupied West Bank has risen to three
- Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, told Middle East Eye that one of Gaza’s last remaining hospitals is “under heavy gunfire directed at the hospital and its departments
Tom Fletcher, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, has raised alarm over the escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza, calling it the most dangerous region for aid delivery.
“We deal with tough places to deliver humanitarian support. But Gaza is currently the most dangerous, in a year when more humanitarians have been killed than any on record.”
Fletcher warned that North Gaza has been under a near-total siege for more than two months, raising the specter of famine.
Quds news network is reporting at least 20 injuries among medical staff and patients of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza following the detonation of Israeli military explosive robots around the hospital.
Israel confirmed publicly on Monday for the first time that it assassinated Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital of Tehran.
Defence Minister Israel Katz made the comments as part of his warning that Israel planned to escalate its conflict with the Houthis in Yemen.
“We will strike [the Houthis’] strategic infrastructure and decapitate its leaders. Just as we did to Haniyeh, Sinwar, and Nasrallah, in Tehran, Gaza, and Lebanon - we will do in Hodeidah and Sanaa,” Katz said, referring to the slain political and military leaders of Hamas, along with Hassan Nasrallah.
Haniyeh was killed in July after he attended the swearing-in of Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian. Middle East Eye reported that witnesses believed Haniyeh was killed by a projectile.
Israel has a long history of conducting assassinations in Tehran, but the brazen killing of Hamas’ leader in a guesthouse controlled by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp was a humiliating blow to Tehran. It also marked a turning point in Israel’s regional war with Iran.
Read more: Israel publicly confirms it killed ex-Hamas leader Haniyeh in Tehran
Israeli occupation authorities forced Jalal al-Atrash, a Palestinian citizen, to demolish part of his home in the town of Sur Baher, south of Jerusalem, on Monday, the Jerusalem Governorate said in a statement.
The demolition order was issued under the pretext of the house having been constructed without a permit.
Under the pretext of constructing without a permit, which is rarely granted to Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem, the Israeli municipality has systematically demolished Palestinians' properties, or forced them to self-demolish their own homes.
Eight civilians were killed and several others injured on Monday evening in Israeli air strikes targeting a vehicle in Deir al-Balah and two homes east of Gaza City, Wafa news agency reported.
Israeli warplanes bombed a vehicle near al-Awdeh factory on Salah al-Din Road in Deir al-Balah, resulting in the killing of four civilians, according to a Wafa correspondent.
In a separate attack, four civilians, including two women and a child, were killed and several others were wounded after Israeli fighter aircraft bombed the home of the Syam family east of Gaza City.
A Palestinian woman was shot and wounded by Israeli forces as they conducted a raid on the village of Husan near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, Wafa news is reporting.
The woman, reportedly in her 30s, was shot in the foot and transferred to a hospital in Bethlehem.
In a televised speech, Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group’s armed forces launched two “military operations” against Israel. He said that a drone had hit a military target around Ashkelon, an operation which “successfully achieved its goal”.
Saree said that the group had also fired a drone at the area around Tel Aviv. The attacks, he said, were a response to the “massacres against our brothers in Gaza”.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) has called for accelerated progress in the Israeli military’s withdrawal from south Lebanon, and the Lebanese army’s deployment there.
In a statement on Monday, it urged “all actors to cease and refrain from violations of (Security Council) resolution 1701 and any actions that could jeopardise the fragile stability that currently prevails”.
The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah has been in place for a month.
Unifil’s statement comes after Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the US and France should pressure Israel to complete its withdrawal faster.
The fate of the hostages held by Hamas depends on advances made by the Israeli military in some areas, Abu Obaida, spokesman of the Qassam Brigades, said on Telegram on Monday.
Earlier today, during a speech in the Knesset, Israeli Prime Minister said that Israel had made “great achievements” militarily on several fronts and that military pressure on Hamas had led its leaders to soften their previous demands.
He added that progress had been made in ongoing hostage negotiations with Hamas but that he did not know how much longer it would take to see the results.
Wafa news agency is reporting that four Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli attack targeting a group of civilians near al-Saraya junction in central Gaza City.
Elsewhere, it reported that Israeli drones targeted the vicinity of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza's Beit Lahia, setting several houses near the facility alight.
The Israeli army has said its air defences destroyed a Houthi drone before it could enter Israeli territory.
The group fired a ballistic missile which damaged a school in Tel Aviv on Saturday, in response to Israeli air strikes on power plants and an oil facility in Yemen.
A Jordanian doctor travelling to Gaza as part of a relief delegation has been arrested by Israeli forces, according to his family.
Abdulla al-Balawi was detained by Israeli authorities at the Allenby Bridge crossing, his father, Salama al-Balawi, reported in a Facebook post.
He said that the Israeli authorities had informed the rest of the delegation that his son was being detained for interrogation.
He added that his detention had been extended until next Thursday and that the Israeli authorities had barred him from meeting with his lawyer. He said that the reasons for the arrest remain unclear.
السلطات الاسرائيلية تعتقل زوج أختي الطبيب الأردني عبدالله سلامة البلوي، وهو متوجه إلى قطاع غزة ضمن وفد طبي إغاثي!
— Malek (@MalekAT01) December 22, 2024
هل هذه مكأفأة أبناء الأردن ونشامى الوطن اللي تركوا أهلهم ومالهم وأبناءهم وتوجهوا لغزة لممارسة المهنة الطبية الانسانية!
يا كرام، شاركوا القضية لتوصل الجميع ⏬️ pic.twitter.com/Teqxavx3r2
Unrwa chief Phillipe Lazzarini has said that in Gaza, a child is killed every hour by Israeli attacks.
“These are not numbers. These are lives cut short. Killing children cannot be justified,” he said in a post on X.
“Those who survive are scarred physically and emotionally,” he said.
“They are losing their lives, their futures and mostly their hope," he added.
No place for children.
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) December 23, 2024
Since the beginning of the war 14,500 children have been reported killed in #Gaza according to @UNICEF.
One child gets killed every hour.
These are not numbers
These are lives cut short.
Killing children cannot be justified.
Those who survive are…
At least three Palestinians have been killed, and others injured in an Israeli air strike targeting a group of people in the Shujaiya neighbourhood east of Gaza City, Wafa news agency is reporting, citing local sources.