Gaza: Israel strikes kill at least 20 near Khan Younis hospital

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Israeli forces have intensified their raids on the cities of Jenin and Ramallah in the West Bank, injuring three and leaving one feared dead, as reported by Al Araby TV.

BREAKING: MASSIVE FIRING BY ISRAELIS IN RAMALLAH IN WEST BANK pic.twitter.com/d33GmZbmUl

— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) December 28, 2023

Gaza Health Ministry said in a statement that an Israeli strike killed 20 Palestinians on Wednesday near the Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza strip. 

(Reuters)

"We can't take it anymore"

A man at the hospital in Khan-Younis collapses in grief following the massacre that took the lives of 20 civilians earlier today. pic.twitter.com/vy4PtKkvVw

— TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza) December 28, 2023

The Australian government has confirmed that two of its citizens were killed by an Israeli airstrike on their home in southern Lebanon, the acting foreign minister has said.

Dreyfus said his government had communicated with Israel about the airstrike but declined to disclose what was said.

“In the context of the current conflict, Australia has consistently called for civilian lives to be protected and we have consistently raised our concerns about the risk of this conflict spreading,” Dreyfus said.

#BREAKING 🚨 Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says the government understands it was an Israeli airstrike that killed two Australian citizens in Lebanon

Watch live on 6 News: https://t.co/LNZ3JA3D2p#6NewsAU | https://t.co/eU0kSSqP9E pic.twitter.com/IMJRZ8vgCb

— 6 News Australia (@6NewsAU) December 28, 2023

Tedros Ghebreyesus referred to the recent UNSC resolution on Gaza, which mandated increased aid delivery.

“UN Security Council members must urgently turn their recent resolution – to create pauses in hostilities and humanitarian corridors – into reality in Gaza,” the head of the World Health Organization said in a post on X.

WHO said earlier that its teams have undertaken high-risk missions to deliver supplies to hospitals across Gaza

Israel's military on Wednesday reported three more soldiers killed in action in Gaza, bringing total military losses to 166 since ground operations began on Oct. 20.

(Reuters)

The Wall Street Journal was informed by Egyptian authorities that they have received proposals from Israel, Hamas, and intermediaries regarding Egypt's recent proposal to end the war in Gaza.

The plan proposed by Egypt, shared with Israel, Hamas, the U.S., and European governments on Monday, involves Israel's complete withdrawal from Gaza. It also includes the release of all individuals detained by Hamas and numerous Palestinian prisoners, followed by the establishment of a unified technocratic Palestinian administration within the region.

The Wall Street Journal's article says that a key issue in these discussions is Hamas's role in Gaza's next government, a prospect that Israel has fundamentally rejected.

A solidarity event , titled 'Applause for Gaza,' took place in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, aiming to raise awareness about the suffering of the Palestinian people.

بعنوان "تصفيق من أجل #غزة".. فعالية تضامنية أمام بوابة براندنبورغ في العاصمة الألمانية #برلين، للفت النظر إلى معاناة الشعب الفلسطيني#ألمانيا @The_Abumuailek pic.twitter.com/LmQdMRI4A9

— التلفزيون العربي (@AlarabyTV) December 27, 2023

Six Palestinians were killed by a drone strike during an Israeli raid in the West Bank city of Tulkarm, the Palestinian health ministry said on Wednesday.

Witnesses said the six young men killed in the strike were sitting together in the early hours of the morning but were not involved in clashes with Israeli forces conducting a raid in other parts of the camp.

"We heard the sound, and the screaming, our house is nearby so we came out to see," said Izzaldin Assaili, a resident who lives nearby.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said the young men were aged between 17 and 29. Another man, aged 24, died of wounds received in a clash last month, the agency said, quoting the health ministry.

No detailed comment on the incident was immediately available from the Israeli military.

(Reuters)

Pro-Palestine activists blocked roads leading to New York's JFK International Airport on Wednesday, during the holiday travel season, in protest against the violence in Gaza.

Witnesses say 26 activists, who organised the road blockade, were arrested by the police.

Travellers reportedly had to leave their taxis and walk to the airport.

Passengers are WALKING past the protest blockade to get to their terminal. The protest is happening along I678 and the service road next to it leading to JFK International Airport in New York City. pic.twitter.com/EVD4uO2ct3

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) December 27, 2023

French President Emmanuel Macron has reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that a "durable ceasefire" needs to be attained. 

According to Reuters, the two leaders spoke on the phone on Wednesday.

(Reuters)

The head of the World Health Organization said his teams are currently on "high-risk" missions to deliver aid to hospitals in Gaza, where there are “intense hostilities in their vicinity, high patient loads and overcrowding”.

“Today I repeat my call on the international community to take urgent steps to alleviate the grave peril facing the population of Gaza and jeopardizing the ability of humanitarian workers to help people with terrible injuries, acute hunger, and at severe risk of disease,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s director general, in a post on X.

Day after day, the needs of #Gaza’s war-ravaged people grow. Peril, ill-health, hunger, thirst, lack of shelter—these should not be the norm for millions of people. But sadly, they are.@WHO and our partners have undertaken additional missions in northern and southern Gaza to… https://t.co/nFcTylnGQ0 pic.twitter.com/TfgBf1nvMv

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) December 27, 2023

Israeli Minister Benny Gantz stated that a change is necessary for Israel's current northern border, and time is running out for diplomatic solutions.

"The situation on Israel’s northern border demands change," Gantz said in a press conference.

“The stopwatch for a diplomatic solution is running out, if the world and the Lebanese government don’t act in order to prevent the firing on Israel’s northern residents, and to distance Hezbollah from the border, the IDF will do it,” he said, referring to Israel’s military.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan described the appointment of Sigrid Kaag as the senior humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza as “an important step as we continue to work with the UN as a critical partner in the delivery and distribution of life-saving humanitarian assistance in Gaza”.

The UN Security Council passed a resolution to scale up aid delivery into Gaza, which included the appointment of a UN humanitarian coordinator for the enclave last week.

Kaag's authority over scaling up aid to Gaza is still unclear.

The final version of the resolution did not call for a ceasefire, due to US opposition.

“We welcome Ms Kaag’s leadership and look forward to working together closely to increase the flow of aid into Gaza,” Sullivan said, “and ensure safety and security for the aid delivery and the humanitarian staff providing the life-saving support to those in need.”

Head of Israeli air force denied accusations of "indiscriminate bombing" of Gaza, saying meticulous procedures are followed before targeting each site



"Since the October 7 massacre, the Israeli Air Force has been conducting a precise, focused and process-based campaign," he said in a statement. "In many cases, we use small PGMs [precision-guided munitions] to strike targets near sensitive areas."

Even though these munitions are not GPS-guided, they are still used accurately,” he added.

A municipality in Gaza said the last time it received a shipment of fuel was at the end of October.

"We received promises from UNICEF to deliver fuel yesterday, but we confirmed that we have not received anything yet. The Gaza municipal service system is still collapsed".

Hapag-Lloyd AG, a major shipping firm, said it will continue to avoid sending its container ships through the Red Sea, and will carry on rerouting its ships via the Cape of Good Hope - a detour several thousands kilometres away, in order to keep them, a statement confirmed.

The UN agency’s director of communications said that people in Gaza have "lost everything and they need everything" in a recent interview, stressing that the needs on the territory's grounds are "huge".

Their needs are amplified by the winter season, which means more warm clothes and blankets, Touma added.

The Secretary-General of the International Federation of Red Cross and the Red Crescent Societies said that 'no words' can describe the depth of human suffering in Gaza.

"In this conflict, civilians, humanitarians, workers are paying the highest price, with some losing their lives."

"Rules exist to help preserve humanity in the darkest moments, and they desperately need to be followed today," he stressed.

Israeli settlers in occupied Jerusalem have placed a donkey's head outside of a graveyard adjacent to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, videos online have shown.

Israeli police have reportedly arrested a man in connection with the incident.

Jerusalem |

Palestinian civil guards discovered that Israeli settlers killed a donkey and placed his head at the historical Rahma graveyard adjacent the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

They placed it very close to the graves of Prophet Mohammed’s companions (pbuh). pic.twitter.com/eJ2DA7jMjF

— Younis Tirawi | يونس (@ytirawi) December 27, 2023

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday that there was "no difference" between Benjamin Netanyahu and Adolf Hitler as he stepped up his attacks on the Israeli leader over the war in Gaza.

"There is no difference between the actions of Netanyahu and Hitler," he said during a ceremony in the capital in Ankara.

"He (Netanyahu) is richer than Hitler. All kind of support comes from the West and the United States," Erdogan added.

The Turkish leader has lashed out repeatedly at Israel for the scale of death and destruction caused by its response to Hamas' unprecedented October 7 cross-border attack.

He has branded Israel a "terrorist state", Netanyahu "the buthcer of Gaza" while calling Hamas "a liberation group".

Israeli forces and the Lebanese group Hezbollah have continued to trade cross-border attacks on Wednesday, as Tel Aviv's war on Gaza rages.

Israeli forces also attacked Lebanon with at least four warplanes, striking residential areas, Al Jazeera reported.

Meanwhile, there have been five attacks from Hezbollah towards Israeli military targets including an Israeli naval base just south of Naqoura with rockets, with the addition of several other attacks targeting Israeli military targets.

The UN agency OCHA said that Israeli settlers have carried out at least 367 attacks on Palestinians the violence including many casualties, injuries and damage to Palestinian properties.

The weekly average of incidents since October 7 stands at 32 compared with 21 per week between January 1 and October 6, 2023, the NGO said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to travel to the Middle East late next week to discuss the war in Gaza, Axios reported on Wednesday, citing five US, Israeli and Arab officials.

Axios reported that Blinken is planning to visit Israel, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

An Israeli strike has killed at least 20 Palestinians on Wednesday near the Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza strip, health ministry officials have said.

Scores of people are also injured. 

Additionally, a drone has reportedly been firing more than one missile at a group of people who remain in the Abasan district in eastern Khan Younis, Al Jazeera said earlier.

Another drone is also reportedly firing missiles the Ma’an area, close to central Khan Younis.

🚨 Urgent: Dozens of martyrs and wounded in the shelling of a residential building in front of the PRCS Al-Amal Hospital in #KhanYounis.
#Gaza

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) December 27, 2023

US President Joe Biden and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani discussed on Tuesday the need to release hostages held in Gaza and efforts to boost humanitarian aid, the White House said.

"The two leaders discussed the urgent effort to secure the release of all remaining hostages held by Hamas, including American citizens," the White House readout said, adding they also talked about increasing access to aid.

The Qatari State News Agency said the emir received a phone call from Biden to discuss the latest developments and current joint mediation efforts for calming the situation in the besieged enclave to reach a permanent ceasefire.

Jordan's monarch, King Abdullah II, is headed to the Egyptian capital Cairo, where he will meet with this counterpart Abdel Fattah El Sisi to discuss the dangerous developments in Gaza and means to impose a ceasefire in the Strip, as per an official statement issued by the Royal Hashemite Court on X.

Israeli forces demolished a house east of Yatta, south of Hebron on Wednesday, according to Palestinian reports.

The army raided the Al-Jawaya area, east of Yatta, and demolished the 150-square-metre house of citizen Alaa Muhammad Al-Nawajaa, which housed seven people, Wafa said.

Palestinian telecommunications company Paltel said that internet services are slowly being restored in the Gaza Strip, following a blackout caused "by the ongoing aggression" carried out by Israel, it said via a statement on X.

The blackout had affected central and southern parts of the territory.

أهلنا الكرام في الوطن الحبيب،

نود الإعلان عن بدء عودة خدمات الاتصالات بشكل تدريجي في مناطق وسط وجنوب قطاع غزة الحبيب، بعد انقطاع الخدمات بسبب العدوان المتواصل.

حماكم الله وحمى بلادنا#أبقوا_غزة_على_اتصال#KeepGazaConnected

— Paltel (@Paltelco) December 27, 2023

A total of 21,110 Palestinians have been killed and 55,243 injured in Israeli strikes in Gaza since October 7, the health ministry in Gaza said on Wednesday.

The figures include 195 Palestinians killed and 325 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.

The UAE emirate of Sharjah has cancelled New Year's Eve fire works in solidarity with the ongoing suffering and war in the Gaza Strip, ongoing since October 7.

The police's decision was announced in a Facebook post by the emirate's police, who said the ban was "a sincere expression of solidarity and humanitarian cooperation with our siblings in the Gaza Strip".

Sharjah Police also stressed to all institutions and individuals to cooperate and adhere to the ban, saying that it will take legal measures against those who violate the instructions.

Dozens of illegal Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Wednesday morning in occupied Jerusalem, under protection from Israeli police, the Palestinian official news agency Wafa said.

Witnesses said the settlers entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque in separate groups, where they conducted provocative tours through the courtyards of the mosque.

An Israeli air strike on a south Lebanon border town killed a Hezbollah fighter, the group said Wednesday, along two of his relatives, state media reported.

"Enemy warplanes raided, before midnight (2200 GMT), a house... in the centre of the town of Bint Jbeil," around two kilometres (a little over a mile) from the border, killing a man, his brother and his wife, Lebanon's National News Agency said.

The NNA identified the dead as Ali Bazzi, his brother Ibrahim and his wife Shourouk Hammoud.

"Ibrahim Bazzi had come to Lebanon a few days ago from Australia, where he has resided for years, to take his wife Shourouk with him and settle in Australia," the NNA said.

Another family member was wounded, it added.

Hezbollah later announced that Ali Bazzi was one of its fighters.

Six Palestinian men were killed at dawn on Wednesday after an Israeli drone bombed the Nour Shams camp, east of Tulkarm, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced on Telegram.

The victims were identified as 17-year-old Hamza Ahmed Mustafa Fahmawi, Ahmed Anwar Hamarsha, Ahmed Abdel Rahman Issa and Adham Muhammad Fahmawi - all 19.

Yazan Ahmed Wahid Fahmawi, 23 and Fares Hossam Fahmawi, 29 were also among those killed. Meanwhile, a 24-year-old youth was seriously injured in the head and his condition was reported to be critical.

Israeli forces also prevented an ambulance from reaching the Martyr Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital as it carried injured victims. eyewitnesses said as cited by the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Many homes were raided by the Israeli army during the violent incursion in Tulkarm, where a comprehensive strike will be observed in reaction to the killing of the six Palestinian men.