US continues to prop up Israel as it bars doctors from Gaza – Not a Ceasefire Day 60

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US continues to prop up Israel as it bars doctors from Gaza – Not a Ceasefire Day 60
Palestinians in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza are struggling to rebuild their lives amid the rubble of homes destroyed in Israeli attacks on December 07, 2025. (Abed Rahim Khatib – Anadolu Agency)

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 791st day.)

Since the “ceasefire” began on October 11, Israel has killed at least 377 Palestinians. Among the dead are at least 136 children. At least 987 have been injured. Death toll figures are tentative.

Israel has so far violated the 11 October ceasefire deal in Gaza at least 591 times.

GAZA NEWS:

(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.) 

Wash. Post: Israel denies some U.S. and foreign doctors entry to Gaza

International medical volunteers have been rotating in and out of Gaza on short-term missions, coordinated by the World Health Organization, since January 2024. While inside, they have lent labor power to overwhelmed hospitals and clinics, performed complicated surgeries and helped train Gaza’s medical workers and set up field hospitals.

As of early October, they’d performed more than 3.5 million medical consultations and more than 50,000 emergency surgeries, according to the WHO.

‘Yellow line*’ that divides Gaza under Trump plan is ‘new border’ for Israel, says military chief

The “yellow line” that divides Gaza under Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan is a “new border” for Israel, the country’s military chief, Eyal Zamir, told soldiers deployed in the territory, giving Israel control of more than half of Gaza, including most agricultural land and the border crossing with Egypt.

“The ‘yellow line’ is a new border line, serving as a forward defensive line for our communities and a line of operational activity,” Zamir said. The position contradicts the ceasefire agreement signed in October, which specifies that “Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza” (continue reading here).

 
*NOTE: Read more about the “Yellow Line” here and here.
Palestinians walk in the neighborhoods of Al-Tuffah and Al-Shujaiya, where a yellow marker suddenly appeared, indicating Israel's takeover of more of Gaza.
Palestinians walk in the neighborhoods of Al-Tuffah and Al-Shujaiya, where a yellow marker suddenly appeared, indicating Israel’s takeover of more of Gaza. (screenshot)

Who is Ghassan al-Duhaini, Abu Shabab’s successor?

After the killing of Yasser Abu Shabab, the Israeli-backed gang leader who led the largest anti-Hamas militia in Gaza, his deputy, Ghassan al-Duhaini, has taken over as head of the group, officially known as the “Popular Forces.”

According to Al Jazeera, al-Duhaini’s history includes working for the Palestinian Authority and later joining the Army of Islam, or Jaysh al-Islam (not to be confused with a Syrian group with the same name), a Gaza-based Salafi jihadist group with a similar ideology to al-Qaeda that declared its allegiance to ISIS in 2015 (continue reading here).

Ghassan al-Duhaini, left, in a photo with an unidentified fighter

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GAZA HEADLINES:

MSF accuses Israel of ‘weaponizing’ aid as Gaza medical crisis persists despite truce

Most Israeli hostages killed by army fire in Jabalia, Gaza, ex-commander says

OCCUPIED WEST BANK/EAST JERUSALEM NEWS & 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.)

Bara’ Bilal Issa Qabalan, 21, shot by Israeli forces in the West Bank on Dec. 8, 2025, succumbed to his wounds on Dec. 9.
Bara’ Bilal Issa Qabalan, 21, shot by Israeli forces in the West Bank on Dec. 8, 2025, succumbed to his wounds on Dec. 9. (IMEMC)

Palestinian Succumbs to Critical Injuries From Israeli Attack

On Monday, a Palestinian Bara’ Bilal Issa Qabalan (21) succumbed to serious injuries he sustained on Sunday near the town of Azzun, east of Qalqilia in the northwestern part of the occupied West Bank. The army continues to withhold his body.

The Israeli army claimed Sunday that its soldiers opened fire on three Palestinians accused of throwing stones at military vehicles. The army added that “one Palestinian was eliminated,” another, apparently Qabalan, was “neutralized” – a deliberately vague term that keeps the family in the dark – and a third was abducted. 

The army admitted that “no injuries occurred among our forces.”

Israeli forces and settlers have killed least 1,094 Palestinians in the West Bank (~223 children) since October 7th, 2023.

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Ha’aretz: Israeli Settlers Slaughter a Donkey They Stole From a Palestinian Child in the West Bank

“That’s usually how it goes,” a village local said. “The police say, ‘We want to catch them, but we can’t.’ We don’t know what to do.” The resident complained that he had nowhere else to go.

“If the government wanted, it could put all the settlers who attack us in prison,” he said. “We keep telling the police, ‘Just as you arrest us, come arrest the settlers who attack us too.’ But no one is arrested, and the attacks don’t stop.”

“I told one of [the soldiers] this week, ‘At 1 A.M., they’ll come and burn the house down on top of my children and me. And you won’t know about it until you see the fire'” (continue reading here).

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Israeli police swap UN flag for Israeli flag during raid on UNRWA compound in East Jerusalem

Israeli police removed the United Nations flag from the compound of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in occupied East Jerusalem and raised the Israeli flag in its place, the agency’s commissioner-general said Monday.

“Today in the early morning, Israeli police accompanied by municipal officials forcibly entered the UNRWA compound in East Jerusalem,” Philippe Lazzarini said on US social media company X.

“Police motorcycles, as well as trucks & forklifts, were brought in & all communications were cut. Furniture, IT equipment & other property was seized…[the UN flag] was pulled down & replaced with an Israeli flag” (continue reading here).

RELATED: UN Chief Condemns Israeli Police Invasion of UNRWA in East Jerusalem

Israeli army carries out a raid, and replaces the UN flag with the Israeli flag at the UNRWA center in east Jerusalem on December 08, 2025.
Israeli army carries out a raid, and replaces the UN flag with the Israeli flag at the UNRWA center in east Jerusalem on December 08, 2025. (Mostafa Alkharouf – Anadolu Agency)

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WEST BANK HEADLINES:

Israeli Forces Shoot Two Palestinians Near Jerusalem

West Bank: Israeli Army Demolishes Homes and Commercial Facilities

NEWS & 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.)

At least 110 Palestinians killed in Israeli prisons under Ben-Gvir

More than 100 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli custody in less than two-and-a-half years, amid rampant mistreatment of inmates under the extremist national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir.

New data reveals that at least 110 detainees died between January 2023 and June 2025, most of them in hospitals after being transferred from detention facilities, the Israeli news outlet Walla reported on Monday.

Some 187 Palestinian prisoners died between 1967 and 2007, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Detainees.

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Israel’s extremist finance minister allocates $843M to expand West Bank settlements

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has earmarked an unprecedented 2.7 billion shekels (about $843 million) over the next five years to expand illegal settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, in what local media described as a form of “de facto annexation.”

“Billions of shekels are intended to reshape the settlements,” the paper said, noting that the budget covers the transfer of military bases, infrastructure development for dozens of new settlements, access roads and expanded defense systems.

The outlet said the five-year package is aimed at “all elements that strengthen Israeli governance” in the West Bank and effectively constitute annexation (continue reading here).

RELATED: ‘De Facto Annexation’ – Smotrich Allocates $843M to expand West Bank Settlements

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Israel begins construction of new barrier along Jordan border

Israel’s Defense Ministry said Monday that it has begun constructing a barrier along the border with Jordan, claiming that the construction aims to strengthen “national security and strategic control over the eastern border.”

The cost of the project is about 5.5 billion shekels ($1.7 billion), and extends roughly 500 kilometers (about 320 miles), from Syria’s southern occupied Golan Heights to north of Eilat in southern Israel.

“This will be a smart border, featuring a physical fence, intelligence sensors, radars, cameras, and advanced technologies,” said Eran Ofir, head of the Border Directorate at the ministry (continue reading here).

ISRAEL HEADLINES:

Israel faces sharp rise in hunger due to economic fallout of Gaza war: Report

Israel to quadruple hasbara spend in bid to salvage international reputation

Smotrich: IDF ‘likely’ to step up enforcement in Lebanon

HEADLINES FROM ISRAELI MEDIA:

(Get a glimpse inside this country that is rife with turmoil and contradictions that receives $63 million a day from American taxpayers. Israeli media sometimes tells the truth about itself, but often publishes myths, half-truths, and lies as facts.)

Reporters Without Borders: Israeli Attack in Gaza Responsible for Nearly Half of Journalists Killed Worldwide in 2025

The myth of healing after Netanyahu

Netanyahu abandoned Israel – and blames everyone

Minister wears yellow ‘noose pin’ to promote terrorists’ executions

OTHER HEADLINES:

Measure To Protect Israel From Global Arms Restrictions Tucked Into $1 Trillion Defense Budget

Congress has released its 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and is preparing to pass the sweeping spending bill, which will give President Trump a total military budget of over $1 trillion. Over the weekend, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth signaled that the budget could get even bigger. 

A new measure to bolster weapons supplies for Israel and protect it from global arms restrictions is tucked into the massive bill, which congressional leaders unveiled on Monday.

Page 1,269 of the roughly 3,000-page document details the new amendment, which requires the US secretaries of war and state, as well as the director of national intelligence, to conduct reviews of the impact of “the scope, nature, and impact on Israel’s defense capabilities of current and emerging arms embargoes, sanctions, restrictions, or limitations imposed by foreign countries or by international organizations” (continue reading here).

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To Catch a Predator: Leak exposes the internal operations of Intellexa’s mercenary spyware

Intellexa is one of the most notorious of the so-called “mercenary spyware companies”, a description used by civil society and industry researchers for private entities that develop spyware and sell it for use by governments. While numerous reports on Intellexa, including by Amnesty International, have documented human rights harms related to the use of its products, its internal operations have remained largely unknown to researchers.

Now, drawing on leaked internal company documents, sales and marketing material, as well as training videos, the “Intellexa Leaks” investigation gives a never-before-seen glimpse of the internal operations of a mercenary spyware company focused on exploiting vulnerabilities in mobile devices, which enable targeted surveillance attacks on human rights defenders, journalists and members of civil society.

Among the most startling findings is evidence that, at the time of the leaked training videos, Intellexa retained the capability to remotely access Predator customer systems, even those physically located on the premises of its governmental customers (continue reading here).

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Seven Members of Palestine Action enter Day 30 of Hunger Strike

Seven members of the group Palestine Action in Britain have been on hunger strike for over 30 days, with their lives now at risk, demanding bail, fair trials, repeal of “counter-terror*” laws targeting peaceful protest, closure of Israeli weapons firms, especially Elbit Systems, and an end to state persecution.

Though none have been convicted, many are held far beyond legal pre-trial limits while their communications and basic rights are restricted. Several have been hospitalized after refusing food for over thirty days.

According to the Morning Star news agency based in Britain, the Palestine Action hunger strike is on track to become the largest since the 1981 Irish republican protest led by Bobby Sands, yet campaigners say it has faced a “mainstream media blackout.” (continue reading here).

*NOTE: The use of the word “terrorist” for a group that protests against its government’s policies is a political, not fact-based choice. 

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MORE HEADLINES:

Netanyahu to Meet Trump in the US for Fifth Time This Year on December 29
Gaza docudrama ‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ nominated for Golden Globe
Tony Blair reportedly dropped from Trump’s Gaza ‘board of peace’ shortlist
Venezuela Vs US: Is Maduro paying the price for his support of Gaza?

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

Dozens of Israeli Collaborators Surrender to Hamas after Abu Shabab’s Assassination

West Bank: Soldiers Kill A Palestinian, Injure One, Near Qalqilia

Israeli spying on US staff at Gaza CMCC sparks major diplomatic alarm

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