21 Dec 2024
- Israeli army has shelled Kamal Adwan Hospital after ordering civilians near it to leave the area, Gaza’s Health Ministry says.
- At least 21 Palestinians have been killed and 61 others injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
- Israel’s military says a missile launched from Yemen has hit the Tel Aviv area after air defence systems were unable to intercept the incoming projectile. Yemen’s Houthi rebels later claimed the attack.
- Gaza’s children are “cold, sick and traumatised”, UNICEF has warned, with 96 percent of women and children in the war-torn territory unable to meet their basic nutritional needs as winter sets in.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 45,227 Palestinians and wounded 107,573 since October 7, 2023. At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks that day, and more than 200 were taken captive.
Israel rejected almost all requests to deliver aid to northern Gaza: WFP
The World Food Programme (WFP) says that since October, it has requested from Israel that it be able to deliver food to areas in Gaza’s northern governorate, which includes Beit Hanoon, Beit Lahiya and Jabalia, 101 times.
However, 97 percent of those requests were rejected or impeded on the ground.
In a post on X, the WFP said a joint UN convoy with nine trucks reached people in Beit Hanoon on Friday who had been cut off from assistance for more than 75 days.
It delivered two trucks of bottled water and seven trucks of wheat flour, and distributed canned food.
Israeli opposition leader says he will not ‘compromise’ on securing captives deal
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid says his party will not “compromise” on pushing for the release of captives held in Gaza, during a protest to demand a deal be reached, The Times of Israel reported.
“There will be no compromise. We won’t bend over, we won’t give up and we will never enter the government,” Lapid said, hinting at National Unity chair Benny Gantz, who joined the government at the beginning of the war in Gaza.
Following Lapid’s speech, the protest joined the rally for the families of captives in front of the entrance to the army’s headquarters in Tel Aviv to call for a deal.
Away from the crowd, about two dozen left-wing activists also held signs accusing the government of committing genocide in Gaza.
‘No safe way to evacuate patients’ from under-fire hospital
The director of field hospitals at Gaza’s Health Ministry told Al Jazeera that the situation at Kamal Adwan Hospital is a “deliberate killing by the occupation”.
Following reports of the Israeli army calling for everyone to evacuate the hospital, Marwan al-Hamas said leaving the hospital would mean patients are walking into “inevitable death”.
“There is no safe way to evacuate patients and staff from Kamal Adwan Hospital. We contacted the World Health Organization and UNRWA, but to no avail,” he added.
Israeli forces open fire at Kamal Adwan Hospital ICU
The situation is really heating up in the north.The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital released a video describing the attacks by the Israeli military on the hospital.
He said the military had opened fire on critical areas, including the ICU and incubators. He added that all medical teams were now trapped in a single room, trying to seek shelter from the ongoing assault.
The Israeli attacks on the hospital have caused extensive destruction and severe damage in terms of the ability of medical teams to provide essential medical care.
We also got confirmation from the director saying that explosives had been deployed near the hospital. It could be a sign of further escalation within the coming hours and more widespread destruction in the surrounding areas.
The director also said Israel is demanding the immediate evacuation of the hospital.
Israeli attack on Nuseirat targets home of Kabaja family
As we reported earlier, at least five people have been killed in an Israeli air strike on the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.
The Wafa news agency reported that Israeli fighter jets targeted the home of the Kabaja family. The attack also caused damage to neighbouring homes.
Local and medical sources have reported that more than 20 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since this morning.
Pope says Israel’s bombing of children in Gaza is ‘cruelty … not war’
Pope Francis has condemned Israeli air strikes in Gaza, a day after an Israeli government minister publicly denounced the pontiff for suggesting the global community should study whether the military offensive there constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people.
The pope opened his annual Christmas address with what appeared to be a reference to Israeli air strikes on Friday that killed at least 25 Palestinians in Gaza.
“Yesterday, children were bombed,” he said. “This is cruelty. This is not war. I wanted to say this because it touches the heart.”
Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli sharply criticised the pontiff in an open letter published by the Italian newspaper Il Foglio.
Chikli said the pope’s remarks amounted to a “trivialisation” of the term genocide.
The pontiff, as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Roman Catholic Church, usually remains neutral in conflicts but has become increasingly outspoken about Israel’s war on Gaza.
In book excerpts published last month, the pontiff said international experts said that “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide.”