“Trump Riviera” is back on the table – Not a Ceasefire Day 71

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“Trump Riviera” is back on the table – Not a Ceasefire Day 71
Ehsan al-Hussari, a 28-year-old mother of three, was in the family house at the moment it collapsed after a storm in Gaza's al-Shati camp this week. (Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

(While a “ceasefire” is ostensibly in place, Israel has continued its assault on Gaza without interruption. If Americans Knew considers the war to be ongoing, and in its 800th day.)

The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that Gaza’s hospitals received 13 martyrs, including 7 whose bodies were recovered, and 20 casualties over the past 48 hours as a result of ongoing Israeli attacks and violations of the ceasefire agreement.

The IDF said soldiers killed a Palestinian in southern Gaza who crossed the Yellow Line.

Since the “ceasefire” began on October 11, Israel has killed at least 401 Palestinians. Among the dead are at least 136 children. At least 1,108 have been injured. Death toll figures are tentative. More statistics below.

Israel has so far violated the 11 October ceasefire deal in Gaza at least 813 times in 71 days.

Palestinians, displaced by Israeli attacks, struggle to survive in makeshift tents in Gaza City, Gaza on December 15, 2025.
Palestinians, displaced by Israeli attacks, struggle to survive in makeshift tents in Gaza City, Gaza on December 15, 2025. (Khames Alrefi – Anadolu Agency)

GAZA NEWS & HEADLINES:

(For some basic info on the Palestine-Israel conflict, go here. For more critical context, skim this, this, and this. To read about a remarkable but underreported, 20-month-long peaceful protest in Gaza against Israel, go here.) 

Israel bombs Gaza wedding as mediators hold ceasefire talks in US

The Israeli military has carried out a deadly attack on a shelter in Gaza City as senior officials from Qatar, Egypt and Turkiye were in the United States for talks on reaching the next phase of the shaky ceasefire.

At least six Palestinians were killed and several others wounded on Friday when Israeli tank shells struck the second floor of a school-turned-shelter while displaced Palestinian families were gathered there to attend a wedding (continue reading here).

Most of the killed were reportedly children, and a hospital that received the casualties said the dead included a baby.

RELATED: Tragedy in Gaza as winter storm turns family’s shelter into rubble

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Famine conditions offset in Gaza, but 1.6M to still face crisis-level hunger: IPC

Famine conditions in the Gaza Strip have been temporarily offset following a reduction in hostilities and improved access for humanitarian and commercial food deliveries, but the overall situation remains critical, according to new findings released on Friday by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), Anadolu reports.

Between Oct. 16 and Nov. 30, 2025, around 1.6 million people, or 77% of the population analyzed, experienced high levels of acute food insecurity classified as IPC Phase 3 (Crisis) or worse, the analysis said. This included more than half a million people in Emergency (IPC Phase 4) and over 100,000 people facing Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5), the most severe classification.

While recent developments amid the fragile ceasefire, including a proposed peace plan and improved food inflows, have helped ease the most extreme conditions, the IPC warned that the outlook remains grave (continue reading here).

Displaced Palestinians, who struggle with hunger, wait to receive hot meal, distributed by charity organizations, in al-Mawasi region of Khan Younis, Gaza on December 17, 2025.
Displaced Palestinians, who struggle with hunger, wait to receive hot meal, distributed by charity organizations, in al-Mawasi region of Khan Younis, Gaza on December 17, 2025. (Abed Rahim Khatib – Anadolu Agency)

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Israel Is Preparing for a Permanent Presence in Gaza, Satellite Images Reveal

Since the so-called ceasefire came into effect in Gaza on October 10, Israel has been consolidating its control of over 50% of Gaza and—according to new research by Forensic Architecture—physically altering the geography of the land, apparently laying the groundwork to establish a permanent presence in the majority of the Gaza Strip.

“Israel is doing what it always does, and what it historically has done best: establish ‘facts on the ground,’ incrementally rather than spectacularly, and make them permanent once those with influence to force it to reverse course either lose interest, decide that the cost of confronting Israel is not worth the price, or come out in open support of Israeli violations.

“Israel is in no rush and prepared to play the long game,” Mouin Rabbani, co-editor of Jadaliyya and a former UN official who worked as a senior analyst on Israel-Palestine for the International Crisis Group, told Drop Site after reviewing a summary of the Forensic Architecture findings (continue reading here).

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Al-Majd Europe: The shell company involved in forced evacuations from Gaza

A shell company with ties to Israel exploited desperate Palestinians and facilitated their forced evacuation from Gaza, charging them large sums of money to covertly exit the country in what may be an official plan to ethnically cleanse the territory.

In an exclusive digital investigation, Al Jazeera probed last month’s mystery flight that spirited 153 passengers from Gaza to South Africa, unearthing figures working for Al-Majd Europe, an unregistered front organization that falsely claimed to be working for humanitarian aims (continue reading here).

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Weakened structures crumble following relentless rain, high winds

GAZA HEADLINES:

After the Rape: The challenges of monitoring sexual violence in Gaza

Doctors Without Borders reports spike in respiratory infections in Gaza amid harsh winter

Average Palestinian in Gaza Displaced Six Times During War, Israeli Human Rights Group Finds

OCCUPIED WEST BANK/EAST JERUSALEM HEADLINES:

(Every day, Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem endure dozens of incidents like the ones below, at the hands of Israeli soldiers and/or settlers. For background on the West Bank, read this and this. For information on the significance of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, read this and this.)

Israeli Violations in the Occupied West Bank on Friday

Israel Expands Illegal Colony Near Jerusalem

HEADLINES ABOUT ISRAEL:

(Israel is a tiny country, about the size of New Jersey, with a population smaller than the US state of Georgia – about 10 million (of which about 20 percent are Palestinians), yet it is in the news constantly. As has been demonstrated again and again, however, mainstream media rarely covers Israel accurately. IAK passes along only factual reporting.)

Israel conducts 4 cross-border raids into southern Syria*

*NOTE: The Israeli army has carried out over 1,000 airstrikes and 400 cross-border raids on Syria since December 2024.

OTHER NEWS & HEADLINES:

U.S. Pitches ‘Project Sunrise’ Plan to Turn Gaza* Into High-Tech Metropolis, will kick in $22.4 billion

Beachside luxury resorts. High-speed rail. AI-optimized smart grids.

Welcome to “Project Sunrise,” the Trump administration’s pitch to foreign governments and investors to turn Gaza’s rubble into a futuristic coastal destination. 

A team led by President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, two top White House aides, developed a draft proposal to convert the bombed-out enclave into a gleaming metropolis. The plan outlines steps to take Gaza residents from tents to penthouses and from poverty to prosperity.

The plan estimates the entire effort would cost $112.1 billion over those 10 years, with the U.S. offering to “anchor” 20% [$22.4 billion] or more of the support. (continue reading here).

*NOTE: This plan for Gaza was developed without input from Palestinians, does not explain where Gazans will live during the redevelopment phase, and is based on a number of assumptions that are not rooted in reality.

A team led by President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, dreamed up Project Sunrise, which purports to take Gaza residents from tents to penthouses and from poverty to prosperity.
A team led by President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, dreamed up Project Sunrise, which purports to take Gaza residents from tents to penthouses and from poverty to prosperity. (Project Sunrise)

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US and Israel ‘planted’ media leaks alleging tensions before Iran attack: Report

The US and Israel plotted to attack Iran earlier this year despite high-profile media reports at the time saying that Washington and Israel were not on the same page, according to an article published earlier this week by The Washington Post.

Israeli and US officials exploited so-called news “scoops”, particularly covering their private discussions, to sway the narrative and influence countries, and to lull Iran into a false sense of security as Tehran was negotiating with the US.

In reality, all the while, the US knew Israel would attack. Before joining in the attack, it sent a restrictive final offer whose terms Iran had previously refused (continue reading here).

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MORE HEADLINES:

US, Israel and UAE discussed using Gaza gas to fund reconstruction, sources say

ICC condemns new US sanctions as ‘flagrant attack’ on intl law

Amnesty calls for blocking German-owned ship carrying arms components bound for Israel

ICYMI (IN CASE YOU MISSED IT) – A SELECTION OF YESTERDAY’S HEADLINES:

Gaza doctors use 3D tech to save limbs shattered by Israel from amputation

Trump, Netanyahu ‘quietly planned’ Iran war since February

Israel uneasy after JD Vance said criticizing Israel is not same as antisemitism

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