- At least 17 people have been reported killed in Israeli attacks since dawn across the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian news organisations.
- Gaza’s Government Media Office said Israel carried out “horrific crimes” over the previous 24 hours with 34 air strikes that killed 71 civilians across the Palestinian enclave.
- Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq said Israel’s forced evacuation orders in Gaza are designed to facilitate attacks on the enclave’s population, including in so-called humanitarian “safe zones”.
- The United Nations has denounced the targeting of Gaza’s hospitals, saying that medical facilities need “to be off limits” to military attacks and incursions.
- Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 45,581 Palestinians and wounded 108,438 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.
- Jabalia refugee camp now a ‘ghost town’ after Israeli assault: ReportThe Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza has been left a “ghost town” with no buildings left intact, according to a report in Israel’s daily newspaper Maariv.The report says the camp is now only home to stray dogs and any buildings that remain standing have been pockmarked by bullets or other explosive shells.Heavy rains that have hit Gaza in recent days have turned the dust of bombed buildings to a mud with the consistency of quicksand.Israeli soldiers who spoke to reporters for the story claimed the level of destruction had forced Palestinian fighters to retreat. However, US-based defence think tanks monitoring the war, said that Palestinian armed groups launched a “multi-wave” attack on Israeli forces in Jabalia on Monday that was significantly larger than any seen in recent months in Gaza.
- Israeli military launches more attacks on southern LebanonThe Israeli military reportedly launched more strikes across southern Lebanon overnight.At midnight, Israeli forces “carried out a bombing operation” in the vicinity of the town of Bani Haiyyan, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).Another attack was reported in Kfar Kila and “the sound of which was heard throughout the south”, NNA reports.Earlier, the agency said Israeli forces are “combing the city of Bint Jbeil with heavy machine guns” from their positions on the outskirts of the town of Maroun al-Ras.The attacks are only the latest violations by Israel’s military of a ceasefire with Hezbollah that has been in place since late November.
- Lebanese soldiers on December 23, 2024, stand near the rubble of buildings destroyed during Israel’s attacks on southern Lebanon [File: Karamallah Daher/Reuters]
- Military veterans accuse Israeli forces of ‘criminally immoral’ actions in GazaIsraeli military veterans have castigated Israeli forces for the huge civilian death toll in Gaza, accusing the country’s armed forces of being unconcerned with the accuracy of their bombing and relying on flawed artificial intelligence in target selection.Breaking the Silence, a veterans’ organisation monitoring Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory, said the current death toll of 45,000 people killed in Gaza means that 15,000 more people have been killed than the Israeli army’s estimate for Hamas’s entire membership.While the “rate of death” in Gaza outpaces wars in Myanmar, Ukraine and Iraq, Hamas has still not been defeated, Breaking the Silence said in a series of posts on social media.
LIVE: Israeli air strikes pound Gaza, more than 70 killed in 24 hours
