Live blog: Israel kills 38 more Palestinians in Gaza as toll nears 45,400

Thursday, December 26, 2024

1216 GMT — 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.

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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."

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.