Live blog: Five Gaza hospital staff killed in Israeli strike

Thursday, December 26, 2024

1900 GMT — The director of the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza said five of the facility's staff, including a doctor, were killed in an Israeli strike.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment after doctor Hossam Abu Safiya said in a statement that "an Israeli strike resulted in five martyrs among the hospital staff".

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1855 GMT — Israel is just getting started with Houthi offensive: Netanyahu

Israel is only at the beginning of its offensive against the Houthis in Yemen, PM Benjamin Netanyahu said in a Channel 14 interview, hours after Israeli jets struck the airport in the Yemeni capital Sanaa.

"We are just getting started with them," he said.

1820 GMT — Israel targeted Sanaa Airport while WHO chief, UN officials were boarding flight: Houthis

Yemen's Houthi group said Israeli air strikes targeting Sanaa International Airport resulted in the deaths of two airport employees and injuries to the assistant of a UN plane’s captain.

The plane had landed to transport World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Houthi Foreign Minister Jamal Amer condemned on X the timing of the Israeli air strike.

He described the attack as “targeting and disregarding the UN,” as it coincided with preparations for Tedros and UN resident coordinator Julian Harnis to depart on a UN flight.

The Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah channel said fatalities in attack on the airport had risen to three with 16 injuries, while the strike on Ras Isa oil port in Al-Hudaydah resulted in one death and three people went missing.

1602 GMT — Residents of Syrian village demand end to Israel’s illegal occupation

Residents of Suwayseh, a village in Syria’s Quneitra province illegally occupied by the Israeli army, have called for an end to Israeli aggression and demanded the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Following the fall of the Baath regime in Syria, Israel increased its air strikes on the country and expanded its illegal ground occupation.

Residents of Suwayseh, located in southwestern Quneitra, shared their grievances with Anadolu Agency.

Shadi Abu Zayd described how Israeli forces entered 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) from the occupied Golan Heights the border strip, damaging Suwayseh and neighbouring villages. He also mentioned direct attacks on civilians, including a child.

Abu Zayd stated that Israeli forces opened fire on peaceful protesters opposing the occupation and injured seven people.

1507 GMT — Israeli military loosened rules of engagement at start of Gaza war: NYT

The Israeli military loosened its rules of engagement at the start of its war on Gaza to enable commanders to order attacks on targets despite a heightened risk of civilian casualties, the New York Times reported.

Immediately after the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas fighters, the military granted mid-ranking officers the authority to strike a wide range of targets where up to 20 civilians risked being killed, the newspaper said.

The order meant for example that the military could target rank-and-file fighters while they were at home surrounded by relatives and neighbours, instead of only when they were alone outside, the newspaper said.

It said the report was based on interviews with more than 100 soldiers and officials, including more than 25 people who helped select and vet targets.

1430 GMT — Israeli air strikes hit Yemen's Sanaa, Hudaida — Houthi media

Multiple air raids targeted an airport, military air base and a power station in Yemen, witnesses and the Houthis said.

Sanaa airport and the adjacent Al-Dailami base were targeted along with a power station in Hudaida, in attacks that the Houthis' Al-Masirah TV channel called "Israeli aggression".

1428 GMT — Legal action possible against US, Germany as they provide 99% of Israel's weapons: UN rapporteur

The UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism said that legal action could be taken against the US and Germany as they provide 99 percent of Israel’s weapons.

Noting that there are a "very small number" of countries that currently supply arms to Israel, Ben Saul told Anadolu Agency that about 69 percent of arms and ammunition to Israel are supplied by the US, and about 30 percent by Germany.

"Every country has a duty under international law to ensure that they do not supply weapons to another country where those weapons would be used to commit violations of international humanitarian law," he stated.

1354 GMT — Families of Israeli hostages threaten legal action against Netanyahu over blocked Gaza deal

Families of Israeli hostages in Gaza threatened legal action against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of blocking a prisoner swap deal with Palestinians.

“We will petition the High Court if you persist in abandoning our loved ones in Hamas captivity,” the families said in a letter to Netanyahu cited by Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth.

The letter accused the Israeli premier of hindering efforts to reach a prisoner exchange agreement with Hamas.

“Refusing to end the war sacrifices the hostages and diminishes their chances of returning alive,” it reads.

1226 GMT — US aircraft carrier forced to retreat in Red Sea after attack: Houthis

Yemen's Houthi group claimed to force a US aircraft carrier to retreat in the Red Sea after a drone strike.

The local 26 September website, an outlet linked to the Houthi-run Defense Ministry, said the US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman was forced to retreat northward in the Red Sea toward Egypt’s Suez Canal after an attack earlier this week.

The Yemeni website said that satellite imagery showed the US carrier moving away from Yemeni waters.

1225 GMT — Pakistan's media bodies condemn killing of journalists in Israeli air strikes

Pakistani journalist bodies condemned the killing of their Palestinian colleagues in Israeli air strikes on Gaza.

Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), the main body of Pakistani journalists, "strongly" condemned the journalists' killings, terming it a calculated attempt by the "Zionist" regime to "hide the truth."

1216 GMT — Israel kills 38 more Palestinians in Gaza as toll nears 45,400

At least 38 more Palestinians have been killed in relentless Israeli attacks in Gaza, bringing the overall death toll since last year to 45,399, the Health Ministry in the besieged enclave said.

A ministry statement added that some 107,940 others were wounded in the ongoing assault.

"Israeli forces killed 38 people and injured 137 others in three massacres of families in the last 24 hours," the ministry said.

1119 GMT — Three babies freeze to death in Gaza amid Israel’s genocidal war

Freezing temperatures have killed three Palestinian babies in Gaza in the last 48 hours amid a deadly Israeli onslaught on the enclave, officials and local media said.

A three-week-old baby girl lost her life in a tent encampment in al-Mawasi in the southern city of Khan Younis on Wednesday, Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, the director general of Gaza’s Health Ministry, said on his X account.

Sela Mahmoud Al-Fasih “froze to death from the extreme cold” he added.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said two other infants, aged three days and one month, have also died from cold temperatures and a lack of access to warm shelter.

1034 GMT — One Israeli soldier killed in central Gaza fighting: military

An Israeli reservist soldier was killed in clashes with Palestinian resistance fighters in central Gaza, the military said.

A military statement said the soldier was a team commander in the 551st Reserve Paratroopers Brigade of the army's 6551st Battalion.

It, however, did not provide details about the circumstances of his death.

At least 882 Israeli soldiers have been killed and 5,524 others injured since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict in October last year.

1032 GMT — Journalist among 15 Palestinians detained in Israeli raids in occupied West Bank

At least 15 more Palestinians were detained in Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank, prisoners’ affairs groups said.

A journalist from Bethlehem was among the detainees in the raids that targeted several areas across the occupied territory, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.

"The raids were marked by abuse, threats against detainees and their families, and acts of vandalism and destruction on citizens' homes," it added.

1000 GMT — UN force sounds alarm over Israeli 'destruction' in south Lebanon

The United Nations' peacekeeping force in Lebanon expressed concern at the "continuing" damage done by Israeli forces in the country's south despite a ceasefire in the war with Hezbollah.

The truce went into effect on November 27, about two months after Israel stepped up its bombing campaign and later sent troops into Lebanon following nearly a year of exchanges of cross-border fire initiated by Hezbollah over the war in Gaza.

Under the ceasefire agreement, UNIFIL peacekeepers and the Lebanese army were to redeploy in south Lebanon, near the Israeli border, as Israeli forces withdrew over 60 days.

0918 GMT — Israeli strikes kill 14 in Gaza, including 3 women, 2 children

At least 14 Palestinians, including three women and two children, have been killed in fresh Israeli air strikes in Gaza, according to medical sources.

One source said eight people have been killed in a strike on a home in the Sabra neighbourhood in southern Gaza City, adding three women and two children were among the victims.

Israeli artillery shelling was also reported in the Zeitoun neighbourhood in southern Gaza City, but no information was yet available about casualties.

Four more Palestinians were killed and others injured when Israeli fighter jets hit another home in the northern town of Jabalia, another source said.

0914 GMT — Israeli army withdraws from West Bank city after deadly incursion

The Israeli army withdrew from the West Bank city of Tulkarem after a two-day incursion that killed nine Palestinians.

A military statement said that caches of explosives and weapons were seized, suspects detained and gunmen killed in “face-to-face battles” during the operation in the city.

At least nine people were killed and 19 others wounded during the Israeli attack, according to local health authorities.

0820 GMT — Extremist Israeli minister storms flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir forced his way into the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem, marking a new provocation amid the ongoing war on Gaza.

This was the extremist minister's fifth visit to the flashpoint complex since he joined PM Benjamin Netanyahu's government in 2022.

The National Democratic Alliance, an Israeli Arab party, condemned Ben-Gvir's tour of the Al-Aqsa complex as a “deliberate provocation to the sentiments of Arabs and Muslims around all the world.”

The party called on Palestinians to intensify their presence and visits to the mosque.

0432 GMT — Israeli air strike kills 5 journalists in Gaza's Nuseirat camp

Five journalists from the Al-Quds Today channel were killed when an Israeli air strike struck their broadcasting van near al-Awda Hospital in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, according to Palestinian officials and media reports.

The journalists were covering events at the hospital when the vehicle, marked with the word “PRESS” in large red letters, was hit.

The victims are Fadi Hassouna, Ibrahim al-Sheikh Ali, Mohammed al-Ladah, Faisal Abu al-Qumsan, and Ayman al-Jadi.

Footage from the scene showed the van engulfed in flames as civil defence teams worked to recover the bodies and extinguish the fire.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the deaths, calling for accountability.

0036 GMT — Israel kills at least 5 Palestinians in Gaza strikes

Five people were killed and 20 wounded in an Israeli air strike on a house in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighbourhood, the medics reported. They warned the death toll could rise as many remained trapped under the rubble.

2109 GMT — Israel kills 1 in ongoing assault in northern occupied West Bank

Israel killed one and wounded four others after opening fire in its ongoing raid in the Tulkarem refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank.

Citing an unnamed security source, Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that 25-year-old Ahmed Mahmoud Khaled Amarna died after Israeli forces surrounded his home in the Jabal al-Amarna area of Qaffin, north of Tulkarem.

2058 GMT — 1 dead, 2 wounded after Israeli missile remnant explodes in Tyre, Lebanon

A person was killed and two others wounded in the Rashidieh Palestinian refugee camp in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre following the explosion of a missile remnant from a previous Israeli attack.

"A missile left over from the war exploded in the Rashidieh camp, resulting in the martyrdom of a man from Al-Qassem family and injuries to his two children," Lebanon's National News Agency reported.

For our live updates from Wednesday, December 25, 2024, click here.