Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
At least 38 Palestinians were killed in Gaza Wednesday.
At least 23 were killed Tuesday.
The Israeli army killed at least 14 Palestinians Monday morning, including five guards escorting aid trucks, and injured dozens in several airstrikes and shelling across the Gaza Strip. According to Palestinian figures, the Israeli army has killed over 720 Palestinian policemen and security personnel guarding aid trucks in Gaza since October last year.
At least three Palestinian infants have frozen to death in Gaza in recent days amid winter temperatures and inadequate shelter due to Israel’s 446-day U.S.-backed assault and blockade of the besieged coastal enclave, according to medical officials there.
Gaza Health Ministry Director Dr. Muneer Alboursh said that Sila Mahmoud Al-Faseeh, a 3-week-old baby girl, died Sunday “from the extreme cold” in a tent where her forcibly displaced family is sheltering on a beach in al-Mawasi, an Israeli-designated “safe zone” for displaced Palestinians.
Sila was rushed to a field hospital where doctors unsuccessfully tried to revive her. Ahmed al-Farra, director of the children’s ward at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, confirmed to the AP that the girl died of hypothermia and said that two other babies, ages 3 days and 1 month, were also brought to the hospital within the past 48 hours after freezing to death.
Hundreds of thousands of Gazans are packed into tent camps along the coast as the cold, wet winter sets in. Aid groups have struggled to deliver food and supplies and say there are shortages of blankets, warm clothing and firewood.
Gaza toddlers got the polio vaccine, then an Israeli bomb took their legs
On the morning of September 2, Shaima al-Daqqi got up early to take her two daughters – Hanan and 22-month-old Misk – to get the polio vaccine, which was being offered to people in the midst of Israel’s war on Gaza.
The following day, after the family had lunch, Israel bombed their home in Deir el-Balah.
It killed 25-year-old Shaima and injured the rest of the family, including her husband Mohammed al-Daqqi, and tore through the two little girls’ legs.
Hanan was severely injured, losing both her legs – one above the knee and one below – and sustaining wounds across her body, including her face and intestines. She had to undergo surgery to remove part of her bowels.
Meanwhile, little Misk had to have her left foot amputated.
Their father, Mohammed, 31, was in intensive care for two weeks with a brain hemorrhage and injuries to his chest.
“We’ve been trapped in a nightmare for four months now,” says the girls’ aunt Shefa as she tries to soothe Hanan, who has been fragile and volatile since the attack (continue reading here).
RELATED: Palestinians mourn Gaza artist killed by Israeli airstrike
Famine? – or no famine due to ethnic cleansing?
The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) – an initiative funded by USAID, the US government agency that oversees foreign aid – has taken down a report on its website that sounded the alarm about tens of thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza at risk of death under Israeli siege.
The report was published on Monday and used figures provided by the United Nations.
According to the news outlet Jewish Insider, which initially reported on the report’s withdrawal, FEWS NET had described a “near-total blockade of humanitarian and commercial food supplies to besieged areas of North Gaza Governorate,” and stated that 65,000 to 75,000 civilians remained in the area, “including civilians who have been unable to or prevented from evacuating”.
The US ambassador to Israel, Jacob Lew, quickly reprimanded FEWS NET on social media.
The data, he said, “is outdated and inaccurate”.
“We have worked closely with the Government of Israel and the UN to provide greater access to the North Governorate, and it is now apparent that the civilian population in that part of Gaza is in the range of 7,000-15,000, not 65,000-75,000 which is the basis of this report,” he wrote.
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories – better known as COGAT, which is the Israeli government’s regulatory body for Gaza – “estimates the population in this area is between 5,000 and 9,000”, Lew said.
UNRWA, the Palestinian refugee agency, “estimates the population is between 10,000 and 15,000”, he added.
“At a time when inaccurate information is causing confusion and accusations, it is irresponsible to issue a report like this.”
The backlash was swift.
In response to Lew, Yousef Munayyer, the head of the Israel/Palestine Program at the Arab Center Washington DC, said on X that what Lew meant to say was that “Israel can’t be starving these people in that area because they have already ethnically cleansed it”.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the US, condemned Lew’s remarks and demanded that FEWS NET make its report available to the public.
“Ambassador Lew’s callous dismissal of this shocking report by a US-backed agency exposing Israel’s campaign of forced starvation in Gaza reminds one of the old joke about a man who murdered his parents and then asked for mercy because he is now an ‘orphan’,” a statement by CAIR said.
“To reject a report on starvation in northern Gaza by appearing to boast about the fact that it has been successfully ethnically cleansed of its native population is just the latest example of Biden administration officials supporting, enabling and excusing Israel’s clear and open campaign of genocide in Gaza.”
‘Preventable deaths’ in Gaza due to Israeli blockade
Ayesha Khan, associate professor of emergency medicine and part of a medical mission in central Gaza, says they see “preventable deaths” due to the Israeli blockade.
“We have one bottle of antiseptic that we can use in a month. When we clean a wound to do a lifesaving intervention, even if we save the patient now, the antibiotic-resistant infections will take them later,” Khan told Al Jazeera.
“We see shrapnel wounds, [but] the wounds will never heal because there’s no protein in the market. We see children who have had diarrhoea for almost a year now because of the water filtration,” she said.
Khan added that Gaza has an “entire population that is not healing and that is not able to make a recovery.”
‘Larceny writ large’: UN says criminal groups systematically looting Gaza aid under Israel’s nose
Gaza aid deliveries are suffering “systematic, tactical, armed, crime-syndicate looting” by organized groups, said Georgios Petropoulos, a senior UN official based in the southern city of Rafah, in comments reported by the New York Times (NYT) on 23 December. “This is just larceny writ large.”
“There is continued tolerance by the Israel Defense Forces of unacceptable amounts of looting of areas that are ostensibly and de facto under their military control,” Petropoulos said.
Based on interviews with Israeli military officials, aid workers, and Palestinians in Gaza, the NYT concluded that the looting is taking place due to the vacuum left by the Israeli military in the besieged enclave by its targeting of Hamas, including its civilian police force.
The NYT reported the testimony of Hazem Isleem, a Palestinian truck driver whose aid convoy was ambushed by armed looters.
The armed men stole thousands of pounds of flour from about 100 UN trucks, an amount large enough to feed tens of thousands of people. Gangs then sell the stolen items to desperate Palestinians in Gaza for massively inflated prices – for example, a 55-pound sack of flour, normally costing $10, has risen to as much as $220.
The NYT notes that “Though Hamas has been routed in much of the territory, Israel has not put an alternative government in place. In parts of southern Gaza, armed gangs have filled the resulting power vacuum, leaving aid groups unwilling to risk delivering supplies.”
The looting has caused the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, to end aid deliveries through the Kerem Shalom crossing, which is now the main entry point for aid since the closing of the Rafah crossing from Egypt in May.
“Hundreds of truckloads of relief are piling up at the crossing in part because aid groups fear they will be looted,” the NYT added.
Israel has helped cause the security vacuum by repeatedly killing members of the Gaza police force in previous months as they accompanied aid trucks to their destinations, the NYT noted.
Hamas says Gaza cease-fire deal delayed due to new Israeli conditions
Palestinian resistance group Hamas said Wednesday that a Gaza cease-fire and prisoner swap has been delayed due to new Israeli conditions.
In a brief statement, Hamas said it showed flexibility and responsibility during the cease-fire and prisoner exchange negotiations in Doha with Qatari and Egyptian mediation.
“The (Israeli) occupation set new issues and conditions related to withdrawal, cease-fire, prisoners, and the return of the displaced, which delayed reaching an agreement that was available,” it added.
There was no comment from the Israeli government on the Hamas statement.
RELATED: Netanyahu’s ceasefire bluff? Inside talks to end the Gaza war
Israel builds ‘beachfront retreat’ for soldiers committing genocide in Gaza
In the latest sign that Israel’s occupation of Gaza will continue for years to come, the military constructed a “beachfront retreat” in the strip to give its soldiers a break between ethnically cleansing the enclave.
“This unique respite, situated amid the devastation of enemy territory, offers soldiers a rare break from their grueling missions in the Gaza Strip,” the Ynet website reported on 23 December.
The facility provides soldiers access to mental health counselors, nurses, paramedics, massage therapists, and dentists. It also has a coffee bar, breakfasts reminiscent of a hotel buffet, grilled steaks from a barbeque station, and a dessert and candy station.
One corner of the retreat provides religious texts, tefillin sets, and prayer shawls for Jewish worship.
Sergeant Yaron Rabinovitch from the Nahal Brigade’s 50th Battalion explained, “Each platoon gets a day here about every 10 days. It’s rejuvenating…This has been a game-changer.”
The Army has also built a desalination plant capable of producing 60,000 liters of drinking water daily. “This is unprecedented in a combat zone,” notes Colonel Michael Azulai, the Southern Command’s logistics officer. “The facility’s deployment reflects our readiness for prolonged operations, even if a ceasefire is reached in the context of a hostage exchange.”
Occupied West Bank: Israeli forces kill at least 10 in recent raids, drone strikes
Israeli troops and military aircraft killed at least eight Palestinians, including two women and a teenager, in attacks Tuesday on the Tulkarem and Nur Shams refugee camps in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
Seven people were killed in an Israeli drone attack and shooting by troops in the Tulkarem refugee camp, and one person was killed in the nearby Nur Shams camp, the Health Ministry said, following a bloody day of Israeli military raids.
A 17-year-old Palestinian died of injuries he sustained in a drone attack on a group of young men during an overnight Israeli raid in the town of Tammun in the occupied West Bank, Wafa reports.
A Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli forces Wednesday in the town of Qaffin, north of Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank. The victim was identified as 25-year-old Ahmed Mahmoud Khaled Amarneh.
A Palestinian youth, 17-year-old Rayan Hussam Bani Odeh, was killed and a young man was critically injured by an Israeli drone strike, on Wednesday, in the town of Tammun, south of Tubas in the northeastern part of the occupied West Bank.
In all, at least 834 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers in the West Bank since October, 2023.
Palestinian ruling party Fatah bans Al Jazeera in West Bank
In addition to Israeli attacks, Palestinian Authority (PA) forces are waging a brutal Israeli-backed assault and siege against resistance fighters affiliated with the Quds Brigades in Jenin.
The Quds Brigades’ Jenin Brigade has vowed not to surrender.
The PA’s Fatah party announced on Tuesday that it is preventing Qatari media outlet Al Jazeera from operating in the West Bank, accusing it of incitement against Ramallah.
“To all Al Jazeera employees working in Palestinian territories, we hope you reflect on your actions and resign from this biased channel that has destroyed and continues to destroy the Arab world,” Fatah said.
“Al Jazeera floods the media with lies, especially in Palestine, siding with a group of hostile mercenaries in the Jenin camp and trying to present them as heroes resisting the occupation,” the party added.
NOTE: In May, Israel banned Al Jazeera from Israel, in a move that is considered to be suppression of free press and a violation of international and humanitarian law.
The Palestinian Authority is widely seen as a collaborator with, or subcontractor for the Israeli occupation.
RECOMMENDED READING: The West Bank’s Men of the CIA – Why is the Palestinian Authority Killing Palestinians in Jenin?
Occupied West Bank: Israeli forces destroy park near Bethlehem
Israeli forces have demolished a park in the town of Nahalin, west of Bethlehem.
A resident said the Israeli army broke into the town, specifically the Khallet al-Daliya area to the south, and began demolishing a park containing a swimming pool, restaurant, cafe and other facilities under the pretext that they were built without a permit, the Wafa news agency reported.
The report also said Israeli forces closed the area and prevented the owner of the park from approaching and removing its contents while firing tear gas and sound bombs at any person who tried to approach the demolition site.
EU Officials Will Claim Ignorance of Israel’s War Crimes. This Leaked Document Shows What They Knew.
European Union foreign ministers rebuffed a call to end arms sales to Israel in November, despite mounting evidence of war crimes — and, potentially, genocide — presented to them in an internal assessment obtained by The Intercept.
The contents of the previously unknown 35-page assessment could sway future war crimes trials of EU politicians for complicity in Israel’s assault against Gaza, according to lawyers, experts, and political leaders.
The appraisal was written by the EU’s special representative for human rights Olof Skoog and sent to EU ministers ahead of a council meeting on November 18, as part of a proposal by the head of the EU’s foreign policy to suspend political dialogue with Israel. The proposal was rejected by the council of foreign ministers from EU member states.
Skoog’s analysis laid out evidence from United Nations sources of war crimes by Israel, Hamas, and Hezbollah since October 7, 2023, when around 1,200 people were killed during a Hamas-led attack that prompted Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip. The U.N. estimates some 45,000 people have died in Gaza since, with more than half estimated to be women and children.
“The world now knows that [EU leaders] knew they were in breach of international law because they were explicitly told so by the EU’s own special representative on human rights. History will judge them harshly. And perhaps so will the ICC,” said Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister and secretary-general of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (continue reading here).
RECOMMENDED READING: Germany allows more arms exports to Israel, report says
The UN General Assembly on Monday formally requested the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to provide an advisory opinion on Israel’s obligations as an occupying power in relation to the presence and activities of the UN, other international organizations, and third states in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Israel confirmed Monday that it assassinated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and issued a stark warning to the leadership of Yemen’s Houthi group, threatening similar action.
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🚨BREAKING: Of the meagre 34 trucks of food and water given permission to enter the North Gaza Governorate over the last 2.5 months, deliberate delays and systematic obstructions by the Israeli military meant that just twelve managed to distribute aid to starving Palestinian… pic.twitter.com/iEBkdjLIlM
— Oxfam International (@Oxfam) December 23, 2024
The Palestine Red Crescent Society mourns the tragic loss of its volunteer EMT, Alaa Al-Derawi, a martyr of humanitarian work. He was fatally shot in the chest today in the Khan Younis area while returning from a mission to transport patients to his post at the Red Crescent… pic.twitter.com/47Vb3mVxsx
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) December 4, 2024
This Israeli soldier from the Combat Engineering Corps marked his parents’ wedding anniversary by detonating the homes of displaced Palestinians in Khan Yunis during his participation in the Gaza genocide. pic.twitter.com/PQ6ItnH4Hf
— Israel Genocide Tracker (@trackingisrael) December 22, 2024
The occupation renews the administrative detention of administrative detainee Khalida Jarrar for the third consecutive time for an additional six months and extends her isolation for another month.
⬇️⬇️⬇️ pic.twitter.com/XHVfUwrAvi
— Addameer – الضمير (@Addameer) December 24, 2024
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – DECEMBER 25, 2024:
Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – December 25, 2024: at least 46,233* – 45,399 in Gaza; in the West Bank, Israeli soldiers and/or settlers have killed at least 834 Palestinians (~170 of them children).
Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 11,000 more are still buried under rubble.
According to a report in the Lancet, by multiplying the reported deaths by five, it is possible to reach a conservative estimate of total deaths (including indirect causes like starvation and lack of medicine). Using the latest figure from AFP (45,399), it is reasonable to estimate at least 226,995 total deaths in Gaza since October 7th, 2023.
According to a recent report by the UN Human Rights Office of identified fatalities in Gaza, about 44% were children. It is reasonable to estimate that 19,976 of known direct deaths and 99,878 of the total deaths are children.
Since Israel launched an extermination campaign in northern Gaza in early October, over 4,000 Palestinians have been killed or are missing and another 12,000 wounded.
Palestinian injuries from October 7, 2023 – December 25, 2024: at least 114,440 (including at least 107,940 in Gaza and 6,500 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – December 25, 2024: ~1,595 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 417*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza (updated: Dec 17); 39 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured.
NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.
ADDITIONAL STATISTICS: Since October 7th, 2023:
- At least 49 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (at least 30 from Gaza).
- At least 43 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition (at least 37 of them children)**.
- About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced.
- About 345,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
*The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.
Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.
**Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals.
***The figure does not include the reportedly 59 Israeli soldiers – nearly 17% of the total Israeli military deaths – killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents.
† For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.
Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.
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