Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
Nearly 140 people have been killed in two days of intense air strikes on Gaza, including at least 61 people reported killed throughout Friday and 77 confirmed killed on Thursday.
The Israeli military says the air strikes on 40 sites across the Gaza Strip over the past day were all “terrorist gathering points and Hamas command and control centers”.
They added that dozens of Palestinian fighters “operated from within these areas” – a claim that Israel regularly makes, but does not back up with evidence.
UN human rights chief says Israel has not provided evidence for claims on Gaza hospitals
Volker Turk says the UN has recorded 136 Israeli attacks on 27 health facilities in Gaza, which have caused “significant death and destruction”. While Israel often states that Palestinian armed groups use such facilities for military purposes, Turk said Israel has not backed up those claims with evidence.
“Israel has not provided sufficient information to substantiate many of these claims, which are often vague and broad. In some cases they appear to be contradicted by publicly available information,” Turk said in remarks to the United Nations Security Council.
Turk called for an independent investigation to probe Israel’s attacks on hospitals and the allegations that Hamas is using those facilities for military purposes.
Israel’s means and methods of warfare have killed tens of thousands of people, inflicted vast displacement and laid waste to the territory, he added, saying “a human rights catastrophe continues to unfold in Gaza before the eyes of the world.”
The 23-page report looked at the period from October 7, 2023, to June 30, 2024.
Attacking hospitals is a war crime under international law.
After Shuttering Kamal Adwan, Israel Attacks Last 2 Hospitals in Northern Gaza
The Israeli military is forcing evacuations of the last two hospitals in northern Gaza, just a week after carrying out a brutal attack on Kamal Adwan Hospital that destroyed and emptied out the facility after Israeli forces had besieged it for months.
On Friday, Israeli forces attacked Al-Awda Hospital, shelling the area around the facility and directly hitting the hospital, reports find. Two medical staff members have reportedly been injured after Israel bombed the hospital’s emergency department, Palestinian journalists reported.
The military then ordered all staff and patients inside the hospital to evacuate, threatening them with bombings if they didn’t comply. There are reportedly 96 patients and staff in the facility.
Earlier, Israeli forces ordered the evacuation of Indonesian Hospital, where many of the workers for Kamal Adwan had gone after Israel shuttered the facility last week.
“Gunfire has been reported around the hospital, where hundreds of vulnerable civilians, including children, women, patients, and medical staff, remain trapped,” Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. “Israeli forces continue to fire in the vicinity of the hospital while ordering the forcible removal of those inside.”
Israel destroyed and emptied Kamal Adwan, the only major facility left in Gaza with any operational capacity, last week in an assault. Soldiers totally besieged the hospital, detaining staff, including director Hussam Abu Safiya, and forcing other staff and patients to strip their clothes and leave the facility. They also set the facility on fire, potentially burning people alive.
Amnesty Int’l criticizes detention of Kamal Adwan doctor
Agnes Callamard, secretary-general of the human rights watchdog, has said Israel’s detention of Kamal Adwan Hospital director Dr Hussam Abu Safia underscores a pattern of “genocidal intent and genocidal acts” by Israel in Gaza.
“Dr Abu Safia’s unlawful detention is emblematic of the broader attacks on the healthcare sector in Gaza and Israel’s attempts to annihilate it,” Callamard said in a social media post.
Israeli forces took Abu Safia during their raid of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya one week ago. His whereabouts remain unknown.
“None of the medical staff abducted by Israeli forces since November 2023 from Gaza during raids on hospitals and clinics has been charged or put before a trial; those released after enduring unimaginable torture were never charged and did not stand trial.
“Those still detained remain held without charges or trial under inhumane conditions and at risk of torture,” she added.
Another Palestinian journalist killed in Israeli attack on Gaza: Media office
One more Palestinian journalist was killed in an Israeli attack in the central Gaza Strip, the Gaza government media office said on Friday, hours after the previous journalist death.
In a statement, the media office said Palestinian photojournalist Omar Salah Al-Derawi was killed in an Israeli bombing targeting his home in the Al-Zawaida area, central Gaza, killing him along with his parents. Derawi had been working with several news agencies.
Al-Derawi reportedly performed funeral prayers for his martyred brother a day before he himself was killed, along with his father and mother, after their home was targeted last night in central Gaza Strip.
The Media Office condemned the targeting of Palestinian journalists, describing it as a “systematic effort to kill and assassinate” media professionals.
It called on the international community and organizations dedicated to press freedom to denounce these acts and pursue accountability for Israel in international courts.
Palestinian Authority forces kill father and son in Jenin
Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces killed a father and his son in Jenin on Friday amid an ongoing crackdown on anti-Israel resistance groups in the occupied West Bank city.
The slain man was identified as Mahmoud al-Jalqamousi. His son Qasem Mahmoud al-Jalqamousi was also killed, reported local media.
They became the seventh and eighth Jenin residents to be killed by PA forces since the campaign against resistance groups in Jenin began on 5 December.
They were shot dead when they stepped onto the rooftop of their house in the Jenin refugee camp, which has been under PA siege since the crackdown began, local reports said.
At least six members of the Palestinian security forces have been killed in Jenin in less than a month, including some in exchanges of fire.
The PA says the campaign against Jenin, which it says targets armed anti-occupation groups, is part of an effort to restore law and order against “outlaws”.
Armed anti-occupation groups in Jenin have rejected the labels used against them by the PA, saying their resistance against Israeli troops is legitimate.
Intermittent clashes between armed groups and the PA forces have been reported over the past month, leading to several deaths on both sides.
However, PA forces have also directly killed unarmed civilians.
Biden administration proposes $8 billion arms deal with Israel: Report
The US State Department “informally” notified Congress of an $8 billion proposed arms deal with Israel, including munitions for fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery shells, according to a report on Friday.
The State Department presented the agreement as a measure to “support Israel’s long-term security by resupplying stocks of critical munitions and air defense capabilities,” Axios reported, citing a source familiar with the matter.
“The President has made clear Israel has a right to defend its citizens, consistent with international law and international humanitarian law, and to deter aggression from Iran and its proxy organizations. We will continue to provide the capabilities necessary for Israel’s defense,” a US official was quoted in the report.
It comes as President Joe Biden approaches the final days of his term before the Jan. 20 inauguration of Donald Trump.
The proposed arms sale, pending congressional approval, includes AIM-120C-8 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles for fighter jets, 155mm artillery shells, small diameter bombs, 500-pound warheads, bomb fuzes and other related equipment, the report added.
NOTE: On April 24, 2024, legislation was signed into law giving $49 million per day in military aid to Israel and $2.7 million per day in foreign aid to the Palestinians. (For information on expenditures on behalf of both populations, go here.)
RELATED READING: US has spent $22B supporting Israel’s military since October 2023
“We Have to Act”: Taxpayers Suing Congress Members for Funding Genocide Speak Out
On December 19, more than 500 federal taxpayers from 10 northern California counties filed an unprecedented class-action lawsuit against their congressional representatives. Seth Donnelly et. al. v. Mike Thompson, and Jared Huffman charges that the defendants — two Democratic congress members — illegally abused their tax and spend authority on April 20, 2024, when they voted for the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, which authorized $26.38 billion in military aid to Israel.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, alleges that Thompson and Huffman violated the U.S. Constitution, the Genocide Convention and several U.S. laws.
“I am a Palestinian Lebanese American, and I am suing my California congressman, Mike Thompson, for misusing my federal tax dollars and supporting the genocide in Gaza,” Maria Barakat, a class representative, told Truthout. “As a Palestinian and a person of conscience, Thompson has forced me to be complicit in the murder and genocide of my own people.”
Taxpayers who brought the suit come from a wide variety of backgrounds. They include young people, the elderly, educators, health care workers, Jewish and Palestinian Americans, and others. Members of the class are defined as: “All persons who were federal taxpayers during the year 2024 who reside within the federal Second or Fourth Congressional District of California and have suffered moral and emotional/psychic injury from being made complicit in the ongoing genocide in Gaza” (continue reading here).
As Israel’s 15-month annihilation of Gaza continues with intensified attacks on medical infrastructure and workers, an international coalition of advocacy groups is planning a #SickFromGenocide global day of action on Monday “to take a stand against the targeted attacks on healthcare.”
Organizer Doctors Against Genocide (DAG) and co-sponsors including Healthcare Workers for Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement, Do No Harm Coalition, Labor for Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council, and others are calling on healthcare workers around the world to take a day of mental health leave “to reflect on the immense moral injury of funding a genocide and engage the most important aspect of treatment: publicly demanding an end to the genocide in Gaza.”
Monday’s day of action is set to include a “Sick From Genocide” global vigil and pop-up clinics in cities across the United States, whose government gives Israel billions of dollars in weapons support each year.
“For 15 months, we have watched in horror as children and families have been obliterated by unrelenting attacks,” DAG said in a statement Friday. “Hospitals, the bedrock of lifesaving care, have been turned into death traps. The recent bombing and burning of Kamal Adwan Hospital and the arrest of our colleague, the pediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, exemplify the deliberate targeting of healthcare workers and facilities—tactics designed to accelerate the annihilation and forced displacement of the Palestinian people in Gaza” (continue reading here).
MORE NEWS:
IMEMC Daily Reports
Al Jazeera: Al Jazeera in Palestine: A timeline of coverage against all odds
Gaza doctor returns to treat patients after losing his leg
Despite losing his leg in an Israeli attack, Dr. Khaled Al-Saidi has returned to his role in the pediatric emergency department at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. After 6 months of recovery and a prosthetic fitting, the… pic.twitter.com/LdQEIk9QR2
— Middle East Monitor (@MiddleEastMnt) January 4, 2025
A video documenting colonial Israeli settlers attacking the elderly Palestinian man Khaled al-Najjar in Masafer Yatta town in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron. pic.twitter.com/k4IZB1ZASH
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 3, 2025
We are broken. 💔 After witnessing 15 months of relentless violence and destruction in Gaza, we can no longer carry on as if everything is normal. The international system has failed, and we are sick—sick from genocide, sick from complicity, and sick from silence.
On January… pic.twitter.com/tLvsJ033bQ
— Doctors Against Genocide (@docstopgenocide) December 27, 2024
Healthcare workers around the world and our allies! Call in SICK FROM GENOCIDE 1/6.
Organize actions to pressure medical institutions to take a stand against the targeted attacks on healthcare. We must end the genocide.#SICKFROMGENOCIDE#FreeDrHussamAbuSafiya pic.twitter.com/8Ry8yBAyRU
— Rupa Marya, MD (@DrRupaMarya) January 3, 2025
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – JANUARY 3, 2025:
Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – January 3, 2025: at least 46,553* – 45,717 in Gaza; in the West Bank, Israeli soldiers and/or settlers have killed at least 836 Palestinians (~172 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 (45,717), it is reasonable to estimate at least 228,585 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 20,115 of known direct deaths and 100,577 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 – January 3, 2025: at least 115,356 (including at least 108,856 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 – January 3, 2025: ~1,595 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 417*** (or 391) military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza (updated: Dec. 17); 43 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 50 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (at least 30 of them 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.
- Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
- The Failure of the Two-State Solution – Refugees
- Born in the heat of war, dead from the cold: Gaza’s children are freezing to death
- ‘Decades to rebuild’: Israel grabs land and wipes out Syria’s arsenal
- WATCH: The Israeli Hit List – Iran Remains
- Flashback: The Israel Lobby by Mearsheimer and Walt
- Held in Isolation, Palestinian Leader Khalida Jarrar Faces Torturous Conditions
- In defense of CAIR against Israel’s attack and threat
- The Moral Bankruptcy of the West
- A 1984 conference forged Israel’s influence over US media
- Israel and the United States: Who Rules the Roost?
- Doctors in Gaza Say They Have No Doubt Israel Is Targeting Them
- U.S. Nonprofit Raised $300,000 for Israeli Sniper Unit Associated With Killings of Unarmed Palestinians
- Israel’s Channel 14 Has Called for Genocide Against Gaza Over 50 Times
- In Lebanon, Israel Is Only Sowing the Seeds of More Bloodshed and Terror
- Spotify: Wrapped, Robbed, and Censored
- How Sunday Morning News Shows Promote an Anti-Palestinian Agenda
- Deadly USS Liberty Attack Records Remain Secret – For Now
- US diplomat resigns from State Department over Gaza genocide
- The BBC can’t be trusted to report on the war in Gaza
![“Thank you, US [taxpayers], for enabling us to wage war” with another $8B – Day 456](https://israelpalestinenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/1-5-t-180x100.jpg "“Thank you, US [taxpayers], for enabling us to wage war” with another $8B – Day 456")
