Gaza Unrest
Live Reporting
Reporters Without Borders files second Gaza complaint with ICC
The media rights group has said the complaint filed with the International Criminal Court (ICC) relates to “probable war crimes” committed by Israeli forces in the deaths of seven Palestinian reporters in Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.
RSF had previously filed a complaint to the ICC concerning the killing of seven other journalists in Gaza. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said 61 Palestinian, 4 Israeli, and three Lebanese reporters have been killed since Israel began bombarding Gaza following the October 7 attack by Hamas.
UN Security Council acts to boost aid to Gaza after US abstains
The United Nations Security Council on Friday approved a toned-down bid to boost humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and called for urgent steps "to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities" after a week of vote delays and intense negotiations to avoid a veto by the United States.
Amid global outrage over a rising Gaza death toll in 11 weeks of war between Israel and Hamas and a worsening humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave.
Only gauze and iodine for injured patients at Gaza field hospital
All Palestinian surgeon Bashir al-Hourani has to work with in the central Gaza school where he helps run a field clinic amid Israel's pounding offensive is gauze and disinfectant as he treats walking wounded turned away from overstretched hospitals.
"We don't have anything else," he said.
WATCH: What is life like for displaced Gazans?
— AJ+ (@ajplus) December 22, 2023
‘Doing all we can to rid our people and territories of occupation,’ says Hamas official
The question of whether Hamas would be willing to recognise the state of Israel to achieve the goal of establishing a Palestinian state for Gaza and the West Bank is “meaningless at this point in time”, Hamas official Husam Badran said.
“The real question that should be raised is why are Israelis continuing to wreak killings among our people and the destruction among all our properties — even mosques and places of worship, school buildings were not spared — denying water and food,” Badran told Al Jazeera.
“These are the questions to be raised to the Israeli occupation forces, not to us,” he said.‘Doing all we can to rid our people and territories of occupation,’ says Hamas official
UNSC has failed people of Palestine so far, says PML-N’s Shehbaz
— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) December 22, 2023
Putin vows aid, urges halt to Gaza fighting in call with Palestine president
Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to continue to supply the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid and urged a peaceful resolution to fighting between Israel and Hamas.
‘Where do we go’: Journalist reports from camp in Gaza
— MoTaz (@azaizamotaz9) December 22, 2023
At least one person killed in Israeli artillery shelling in Bureij market: Report
At least one person has been killed and number of people have been wounded in Israeli artillery shelling in the middle of Bureij market in central Gaza, a correspondent from the Palestinian Safa news agency reports.
Clashes reported in several areas of occupied East Jerusalem
Al Jazeera’s Sara Khairat, from occupied East Jerusalem, said “sound bombs” could be heard near the Al-Aqsa Mosque a few minutes ago, just before the start of the Friday prayer.
“There have been a lot of clashes and, for the first time, not just in one area but outside several gates that take you to the old city,” she added.
A video on social media shows Israeli soldiers on horses chasing worshipers away from the Lions Gate, one of the seven gates of the Old City of Jerusalem.
At least 16 people killed from al-Bursh family in Jabalia: Report
At least 16 people from the al-Bursh family have been killed after Israeli forces targeted their home on Old Gaza Street in Jabalia town, the Palestinian Shehab News Agency has reported. Another 50 people were wounded in the attack.
Earlier, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud reported that Ministry of Health Director-General Munir al-Bursh was critically injured following the Israeli air strike on his sister’s house, where he was sheltering. His daughter was among those killed.
Meanwhile, another nine Palestinians have been killed after Israeli forces bombed a house in the Abu Iskandar area in the Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City, Quds News Network has reported.
Bethlehem’s Christmas economy bleeds from Gaza war
Revered as the birthplace of Christ, the town of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank is usually bustling with thousands of pilgrims and tourists in December.
A giant Christmas tree, parades and religious ceremonies typically inaugurate the season’s celebrations in Nativity Square. But this year, none of these things are happening because of Israel’s continuing assault on the Gaza Strip, and because of economic hardship.
The streets and courtyards in Bethlehem are largely empty, the roads leading to the city have been sealed off by Israeli forces, and several towns in the area have been violently raided by armed Israeli soldiers.
Churches across Palestine announced the cancellation of all Christmas festivities in an expression of unity with Gaza – limiting activities to services and prayers.
Mass arrest campaign in occupied West Bank continues
The Israeli army says it has arrested at least 11 people during raids across the occupied West Bank.
Military operations took place overnight in Beit Rima village and Dura.
Palestinians across the occupied territories have seen an uptick in Israeli forces’ raids and mass arrests with more than 4,600 people taken in since October 7.
Since then, Israeli forces have killed at least 258 people, the vast majority with live ammunition, according to data from the UN.
Israeli army issues instructions to take shelter
The Israeli army has given instructions to residents in several areas in the north and centre of the Gaza Strip to “immediately move to shelters in Deir al-Balah”.
It also said that “a tactical and temporary suspension of military activities for humanitarian purposes” will come into effect for four hours starting from 10am [8:00 GMT].
It won’t be possible to pass through the Salah al-Din Street, but via the Al-Rashid (Al-Bahr) Street, it added.
While the Israeli military has repeatedly issued similar instructions, extensive reports from the ground show that places or routes that the army indicated as safe have been targeted.
Renewed fire from Lebanon into Israel: Army
The Israeli Army Radio says about 24 rockets were fired from Lebanon towards northern Israel.
There were no reports of injuries.
Poll suggests Israelis prefer Biden to Trump as next US president: Report
According to a new survey, 40 percent of the people in Israel want US President Joe Biden to be re-elected in 2024, compared to about 26 percent who prefer rival Donald Trump, the Times of Israel reported.
The poll showed a big swing among Israelis compared to 2020. Back then, more than 60 percent of them preferred Trump as US president, compared to 17 who backed Biden.
The steep decline in support for Trump may be linked to his criticism, among others, of the Israeli military and political leadership for its alleged failures in preventing the October 7.
This is the first time in at least two decades where the Israeli public appears to favor a Democratic presidential candidate over a Republican, the Times reported.
Rescuers retrieve dead, wounded after Israeli strikes on southern Gaza
Civil defence workers and civilian volunteers worked through the night to recover bodies and search for survivors following an Israeli strike on Gaza’s southern city of Rafah.
According to a post on the Palestinian civil defence’s Facebook page, which was verified by Al Jazeera’s fact-checking unit Sanad, Israel bombed residential buildings northwest of Rafah and in the Yabna refugee camp.
Several injured people were rescued from the home that was attacked in Yabna, though the total number of casualties from the attacks has yet to be determined.
Gaza Health Ministry says 20,057 Palestinians killed since October 7
A total of 20,057 Palestinians have been killed and 53,320 injured by Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, the Health Ministry in the Palestinian territory has said.
Nearly 400 people killed in past two days: Health Ministry
The Ministry of Health in Gaza says 390 Palestinians have been killed and another 734 people have been injured in the past 48 hours while communications were suspended.
Palestinians to be ‘prevented’ from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque again
Friday prayer will start in just a few hours and, as for every weekend since the start of the war, thousands of Palestinians will be prevented from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Al Jazeera’s Sara Khairat says.
“Every week there is tear gas, and the reason why is that they are preventing the majority of worshippers from attending the holy prayer – they [Israeli forces] say to reduce clashes as it’s under a state of emergency,” Khairat said, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem.
Since October 7, there has been a dramatic drop in the number of worshippers allowed inside the holy compound: from up to 70,000 to as low as 4,000, Khairat said.
“This is part of the restriction on the movement of Palestinians, not just for Friday prayers, but for the entire old city,” she added.
Israel used ‘one of its biggest and most destructive bombs’ in southern Gaza: Report
A visual investigation by The New York Times shows that during the first six weeks of the war in Gaza, Israel used its “one of its biggest and most destructive bombs” in areas in the south of the Strip which the military had indicated as safe for civilians.
“The findings reveal that 2,000-pound bombs posed a pervasive threat to civilians seeking safety across south Gaza,” read the report.
It added that bombs of that size are “almost never dropped by US forces in densely populated areas anymore,” according to ammunition experts.
Asked about the bombs’ use in southern Gaza, the Israeli army told The Times that Israel’s priority was to destroy Hamas and that “questions of this kind will be looked into at a later stage,” the newspaper reported a spokesperson as saying.
Beyond Gaza: How Yemen’s Houthis gain from attacking Red Sea ships
A 10-country coalition led by the United States is unlikely to be able to stop Yemen’s Houthi rebels from attacking ships in the Red Sea, but both sides have an interest in avoiding an escalation that could spiral out of control, analysts have told Al Jazeera.
Their attacks on commercial and military ships potentially connected to Israel are, according to Houthi officials, aimed at pressuring Israel to end its war on Gaza. The Houthi attacks have been popular domestically in Yemen, allowing the group to recruit new fighters.
‘Gaza is now a different colour from space’: Wartime mapping expert
Corey Scher, a mapping expert at the CUNY Graduate Center, made the dire remark after analysing data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite alongside Oregon State University’s Jamon Van Den Hoek, the Associated Press news agency reports.
They found that over two-thirds of all structures in northern Gaza have been destroyed since the war began, while in the southern Khan Younis area, a quarter of all buildings have been destroyed in that same period.
“Gaza is now a different colour from space,” Scher told AP. “It’s a different texture.”
Dying, injured Palestinians besieged in Gaza church by Israeli soldiers: Analyst
Khalil Sayegh, Palestinian political analyst from Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera of the circumstances of the death of his father, Jeries Sayegh, who died from a lack of medical attention while besieged inside a Christian church in Gaza.
The death of Sayegh’s father, of which he was notified on Thursday, follows after Israeli snipers shot dead two Palestinian Christian women – an elderly mother and daughter – within the grounds of the Holy Family Parish in Gaza, and which the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem branded as “murder”.
Sayegh said his father died because Israeli forces continue to surround the church and those inside are unable to access medical treatment.
“The Israeli army has completely besieged that church,” Sayegh said, adding that Israeli forces wounded another seven people who tried to help the two slain women.
“There was an opportunity to not only save my father … but also there are seven people who are wounded in the church,” he said, adding that the injured are without medical care, and one may die soon, according to a priest at the church.
Sayegh said that Israel is carrying out ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
“The way we understand it: There is an Israeli intentional policy to push the Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip. They want to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip. They want to reoccupy Gaza fully. And the more they make the humanitarian catastrophe worse in Gaza, the more it is likely that people would leave,” he said.
“There is no other explanation for why there is not even one functioning hospital in the north of Gaza except that there is an attempt to ethnically cleanse or there is even a potential genocidal intention.”
Australian cricketer Khawaja to challenge reprimand over black armband amid Gaza dispute
Usman Khawaja said the black armband he wore in a recent test match against Pakistan was for a “personal bereavement” and was not related to his support for Palestinians in Gaza, news agencies report.
Khawaja, a supporter of the Palestinian cause, was reprimanded on Thursday by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for wearing the armband.
“Usman displayed a personal message (armband) during the first test match against Pakistan without seeking the prior approval of Cricket Australia and the ICC to display it, as required in the regulations for personal messages,” the ICC said.
ICC regulations prevent cricketers from displaying messages of political, religious or racial causes during international matches.
Khawaja said he would challenge the ruling as the armband was not a political message.
“I told them it was for a personal bereavement. I never ever stated it was for anything else,” the 37-year-old said, according to Reuters news agency.
“I just asked – and will be asking them and contesting that they make it fair and equitable for everyone and they have consistency in how they officiate. That’s all I ask for,” he said.
Surge in Palestinian arrests and concerns over human rights violations
Since October 7, arrests of Palestinians have skyrocketed in the occupied West Bank and the war-torn Gaza Strip, where more and more reports are emerging of women and children being held by Israeli forces in brutal conditions.
Amani Sarahneh, who works with the Palestinian Prisoners Society, told Al Jazeera of a testimony given by a Palestinian woman held in Gaza by Israeli forces and who was blindfolded and kept bound hand and foot throughout her detention.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has been denied access to Palestinian prisoners by Israeli authorities, which contravenes international humanitarian law.
Injuries reported amid latest Israeli raids across occupied West Bank
Two Palestinians have been injured during dawn raids by Israeli forces in the town of Halhul, north of Hebron, according to local reports.
Citing sources from the Red Crescent, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports that the two men were injured after Israeli soldiers opened fire with live ammunition at a group of young Palestinian protesters.
Israeli forces also seized 31 vehicles from their Palestinian owners in the town of Surif, northwest of Hebron, according to Wafa.
A Biden-Netanyahu rift? ‘Distraction’, Palestinian rights advocates say
US President Joe Biden changed his rhetoric recently, issuing his most strongly worded criticism of Israel since the start of its war on Gaza.
Biden shifted from Israel’s staunchest supporter of the war to accusing his Middle East ally of “indiscriminate bombing” of the Palestinian enclave where more than 20,000 people have now been killed by Israeli forces.
But Palestinian rights advocates question whether Biden really believes his own words.
Were the US president’s concerns mostly a means of deflecting growing international criticism without the US actually intending to take substantial action to save Palestinian civilians?
Two more Israeli soldiers killed, three seriously wounded in Gaza
Israel’s military announced the death of a 21-year-old lieutenant in the special rescue tactical unit (669), who was killed in northern Gaza, and a 31-year-old major-general in the 7071 Engineering Battalion who died in fighting in the south of the Palestinian territory.
Three other Israelis were also seriously wounded, according to the military, including two who sustained injuries in fighting in the south of Gaza and one in fighting in the north.
The UN, citing official Israeli figures, reports that four Israeli soldiers were killed in Gaza between Wednesday and Thursday, bringing the death toll to at least 138 soldiers killed and more than 770 injured since Israel invaded Gaza.
It was not known if the three latest deaths announced by the Israeli military were among the 138 total reported by the UN.
A Palestinian baby girl, born 17 days ago in Gaza war, killed with brother in Israeli strike
RAFAH, Gaza (AP) — She was born amid war, in a hospital with no electricity in a southern Gaza city that has been bombarded daily. Her family named her al-Amira Aisha — “Princess Aisha.” She didn’t complete her third week before she died, killed in an Israeli airstrike that crushed her family home Tuesday.
Her extended family was asleep when the strike leveled their apartment building in Rafah before dawn, said Suzan Zoarab, the infant’s grandmother and survivor of the blast. Hospital officials said 27 people were killed, among them Amira and her 2-year old brother, Ahmed.
“Just 2 weeks old. Her name hadn’t even been registered,” Suzan said, her voice quivering as she spoke from the side of her son’s hospital bed, who was also injured in the blast.
Gaza war 'most dangerous ever' for journalists, says rights group
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The first 10 weeks of the Israel-Gaza war have been the deadliest recorded for journalists, with the most journalists killed in a single year in one location, the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Thursday.
Most of the journalists and media workers killed in the war - 61 out of 68 - were Palestinian. The report said it was "particularly concerned about an apparent pattern of targeting of journalists and their families by the Israeli military."
A spokesperson for Israel's military has said the forces don't target journalists.
Entire Gaza population facing hunger crisis, famine risk -U.N.-backed report
LONDON (Reuters) - The entire 2.3 million population of the Gaza Strip is facing crisis levels of hunger and the risk of famine is increasing each day as the Israel-Hamas war grinds on, a U.N.-backed body said in a report published on Thursday.
That makes the proportion of households in the Palestinian enclave that are in hunger crisis, or suffering from high levels of acute food insecurity, the largest ever recorded globally, the report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza has deteriorated rapidly since Israel began a major military operation on Oct. 7, with heavy air strikes and a ground offensive laying waste to wide areas of the enclave since then, in response to a shock, deadly rampage into Israel by militants of Gaza's ruling Hamas group.
UN Security Council delays vote on Gaza aid until Friday
GAZA/UNITED NATIONS/CAIRO (Reuters) - U.N. Security Council diplomats delayed until Friday a vote on a resolution to increase humanitarian aid into Gaza and another round of talks took place in Egypt to try to get warring Israel and Hamas to agree on a new truce so hostages can be released.
The U.N. vote was delayed despite the United States saying it can now support an amended proposal that would demand that Israel and Hamas allow the use of "all available routes" for humanitarian deliveries.
Even as diplomatic efforts continued, fighting in the Gaza Strip intensified with Israeli bombardments in the north and south of the 41 km (25 mile)-long Palestinian territory and Hamas firing rockets on Israel's commercial capital Tel Aviv, officials said on Thursday.
Israel intensifies Gaza strikes, Hamas fires rockets amid truce talks
CAIRO/GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Fighting in the Gaza Strip escalated on Thursday with some of the most intense Israeli bombardment of the war and Hamas demonstrated its ability to rocket Tel Aviv, even as the foes engaged in the most serious talks for weeks on a new truce.
Israeli bombing was at its most intense over northern Gaza, where orange flashes of explosions could be seen from across the fence in Israel in the morning hours. Later, Israeli planes roared over central and southern areas, dropping bombs that sent up plumes of smoke, residents said.
In Israel's commercial capital Tel Aviv, sirens wailed and rockets exploded overhead, intercepted by Israeli defences. Shrapnel fell on a school but the children were in shelters and there were no reported casualties, Israel's Ynet news site said.
