This blog is now closing and a new one will open later today, but for all of our latest updates – see our full coverage of the Israel-Gaza war, and a summary of the key events so far.
Summary
Here is where things stand:
The Organization for Islamic Cooperation has “welcomed” South Africa’s decision to launch a case at the International Court of Justice in which it accuses Israel of carrying out “genocidal” acts across Gaza. According to Qatari news agency QNA, the 57-member OIC, which Qatar is a part of, stressed that Israel is “committing a genocide by its indiscriminate targeting of civilian population … forcibly displacing them, preventing them from obtaining basic needs and humanitarian aid, and destroying buildings and health, educational and religious facilities”.
Tim Kaine, a US Democratic senator representing Virginia, has condemned the Biden administration’s arms transfer to Israel, joining a handful of other Democrats who are criticizing Biden for bypassing congressional review in the foreign transfer of weapons. Kaine’s criticism comes as Israeli strikes have killed more than 21,600 Palestinians across Gaza since 7 October, while internally displacing more than 1.9 million survivors from their homes.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Nentanyahu, said that the border zone between the Gaza Strip and Egypt should be under Israel’s control. During a press conference on Saturday, Netanyahu said, “The Philadelphi corridor - or to put it more correctly, the southern stoppage point [of Gaza] - must be in our hands. It must be shut. It is clear that any other arrangement would not ensure the demilitarisation that we seek,” Reuters reports.
In a tweet ahead, the World Food Programme warned that “there is a different kind of countdown in Gaza”, pointing to an impending famine across the strip as a result of Israel’s attacks. “We are racing against time to avert a complete collapse of even the most basic services and starvation for millions,” the WFP said.
Israeli forces shot and killed a 22-year-old Palestinian man in the West Bank on Saturday, the Palestinian health ministry announced. The man, identified by Palestinian news agency WAFA as Mohammad Hussein Masalma, was killed by Israeli forces who fired live ammunition at the entrance of the al-Fawwar refugee camp in the south of Hebron, WAFA reports.
Palestine’s ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot, has hailed South Africa’s decision to launch a case against Israel in the International Court of Justice in which it accused Israel of carrying out “genocidal” acts in Gaza. In a tweet on Saturday, Zomlot wrote: “Justice must be served and the #genocide must stop.”
The Palestinian Liberation Front’s armed wing announced on Saturday that an Israeli soldier it was holding captive had been killed in an Israeli airstrike, which also injured some of his captors, Reuters reports. According to an audio speech broadcast by Al Araby television, an Abu Ali Mustafa brigades spokesperson said that the Israeli airstrike occurred after a failed attempt by Israeli forces to rescue the soldier.
Forty percent of Gaza’s population is at risk of famine, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency said on Saturday. “Every day is a struggle for survival, finding food and water,” the UN agency for Palestinian refugees added.
Updated
Here are some images coming through the newswires from Gaza, where more than 21,600 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes since 7 October and displaced survivors grapple with shortages of food, water, medical supplies and fuel:
Updated
Cultural and health workers in Chicago gathered over the weekend in front of the Art Institute of Chicago to publicly mourn hundreds of Palestinian workers from those industries who have been killed by Israeli strikes.
In a post on Saturday, the Jewish peace advocacy group Jewish Voice for Peace called for a ceasefire in Gaza, adding: “Their names will be remembered.”
Last night, Chicago cultural workers and health workers gathered in front of the @artinstitutechi to publicly mourn 100s of workers from those industries killed in Israel’s genocidal attacks on #Gaza and the Occupied Territories. Their names will be remembered. #CeaseFireNow pic.twitter.com/mnlXQy9Aau
— JVP Chicago (@JVPChicago) December 30, 2023
Updated
Organization of Islamic Cooperation hails South Africa's decision to launch case with ICJ against Israel on 'genocidal' acts in Gaza
The Organization for Islamic Cooperation has “welcomed” South Africa’s decision to launch a case at the International Court of Justice in which it accuses Israel of carrying out “genocidal” acts across Gaza.
According to Qatari news agency QNA, the 57-member OIC, which Qatar is a part of, stressed that Israel is “committing a genocide by its indiscriminate targeting of civilian population … forcibly displacing them, preventing them from obtaining basic needs and humanitarian aid, and destroying buildings and health, educational and religious facilities”.
It added that the OIC called on the International Court of Justice to “respond swiftly and take urgent measures to put an end to the genocide committed by the Israeli occupation forces in the occupied Palestinian territory”.
South Africa’s decision to file a case against Israel earlier this week comes as Israeli strikes have killed more than 21,600 Palestinians across the densely populated Gaza strip – which human rights organizations have described as an “open-air prison” – since 7 October.
Updated
Tim Kaine, a US Democratic senator representing Virginia, has condemned the Joe Biden administration’s arms transfer to Israel, joining a handful of other Democrats who are criticizing Biden for bypassing congressional review in the foreign transfer of weapons.
Kaine’s criticism comes as Israeli strikes have killed more than 21,600 Palestinians across Gaza since 7 October, while internally displacing more than 1.9 million survivors from their homes.
The Guardian’s Edward Helmore reports:
Virginia senator Tim Kaine has added his voice to a rising chorus within the Democratic party questioning the Biden administration’s legislatively unconstrained transfer of US munitions to Israel.
In a news release on Saturday, the Democratic senator – a member of the Senate armed services committee – said weapons transfers must come under congressional oversight.
“Just as Congress has a crucial role to play in all matters of war and peace, Congress should have full visibility over the weapons we transfer to any other nation. Unnecessarily bypassing Congress means keeping the American people in the dark,” Kaine wrote.
“We need a public explanation of the rationale behind this decision – the second such decision this month,” he added.
On Friday, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency said the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, had approved the sale of 155mm projectiles and related equipment valued at $147.5m, an increase from an earlier approved order for tens of thousands of rounds of the heavy artillery munitions.
For the full story, click here:
Updated
Here are some images coming through the newswires of pro-Palestine rallies held around the world this weekend, in which thousands of protestors called for a ceasefire in Gaza, where more than 21,600 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes:
Updated
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has transferred more than five injured Palestinians after an Israeli strike hit a house in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, the PRCS said on Saturday.
🚨The PRCS teams have just transferred more than 5 injuries 🚑due to Israeli shelling of a house in the Maghazi camp in the central #Gaza Strip.#HumantarianHeroes pic.twitter.com/5E7cE1Ec2o
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) December 30, 2023
Updated
Here are some images coming through the newswires from Tel Aviv, where hundreds of anti-government protestors gathered on Saturday night to demand the release of hostages held by Hamas and a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza:
Updated
Benjamin Netanyahu says border zone between Gaza strip and Egypt 'must be in our hands'
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Nentanyahu, said that the border zone between the Gaza strip and Egypt should be under Israel’s control.
During a press conference on Saturday, Netanyahu said, “The Philadelphi corridor - or to put it more correctly, the southern stoppage point [of Gaza] - must be in our hands. It must be shut. It is clear that any other arrangement would not ensure the demilitarisation that we seek,” Reuters reports.
He went on to threaten to attack Iran directly over the exchanges of fire across the Israel-Lebanon border, saying, “If Hezbollah expands the warfare, it will suffer blows that it has not dreamed of - and so too Iran.”
Updated
With more than 21,600 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since 7 October, Israel forces have expanded their ground operations across the strip, where more than 1.9 million surviving Palestinians have been displaced as a result.
The Guardian’s Emma Graham-Harrison reports:
Israeli planes bombed refugee camps in Gaza on Saturday as troops expanded ground operations and tens of thousands of Palestinians fled their homes, setting the stage for a new year as bloody and destructive as the last three months of 2023.
The threat of wider escalation also looms large over the region, as skirmishes on the northern boundary with Lebanon intensify, and Israeli officials have hinted that the “diplomatic hourglass” is running out to reach a negotiated solution.
For now there seems little hope of even a temporary break in attacks, even after Egypt hosted leaders for talks this week and pushed plans for a staged break in the war.
A senior Hamas official told AP on Saturday they are firm in their position that there will be no hostage releases without a permanent ceasefire. Israel will not accept ending a war its leaders describe as existential and “without limit”.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says Hamas must be destroyed after the brutal attacks of 7 October, when gunmen broke into Israel and murdered 1,200 people, the majority civilians.
The scale of death and suffering inside Gaza has isolated Israel internationally, with even allies like the UK now calling for a “sustainable ceasefire”. More than 21,600 people have been killed in Gaza, the majority women and children, and thousands more buried under the rubble, health authorities in the Hamas-run strip say.
For the full story, click here:
Updated
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Saturday that Israel was “fighting on all fronts” in a war which he said would last many more months until victory is achieved, Reuters reports.
Netanyahu’s address came as Israel entered its 13th week of war on Gaza during which it has killed over 21,500 Palestinians in what it has declared as its fight against Hamas.
Updated
In a new tweet ahead of the new year, the World Food Programme warned that “there is a different kind of countdown in Gaza”, pointing to an impending famine across the strip as a result of Israel’s attacks.
“We are racing against time to avert a complete collapse of even the most basic services and starvation for millions,” the WFP said.
“Only a long-term ceasefire and unhindered humanitarian access can end this,” it added.
As we count down to a new year, there is a different kind of countdown in #Gaza.
— World Food Programme (@WFP) December 30, 2023
We are racing against time to avert a complete collapse of even the most basic services and starvation for millions.
Only a long-term ceasefire and unhindered humanitarian access can end this. pic.twitter.com/AU7EPHTAyn
Updated
Palestinian health ministry: Israeli forces kill 22-year-old Palestinian in West Bank
Israeli forces have shot and killed a 22-year-old Palestinian man in the West Bank on Saturday, the Palestinian health ministry announced.
The 22-year old man, identified by Palestinian news agency WAFA as Mohammad Hussein Masalma, was killed by Israeli forces who fired live ammunition at the entrance of the al-Fawwar refugee camp in the south of Hebron, WAFA reports.
It added that Israeli forces stationed at the entrance of the refugee camp opened fire intensively at Masalma, who was inside his vehicle, in turn leaving him severely wounded and bleeding. He was then rushed to a hospital in critical condition but died as a result of his wounds inflicted by Israeli forces.
Agence France-Presse reports that one of its journalists saw Israeli forces surround a vehicle with soldiers and military vehicles deployed in the area. The Israeli military said that its soldiers “neutralized” the driver, whom it accused of ramming the car into a military post.
On Thursday, the UN called on Israel to end its use of “unnecessary or disproportionate force and unlawful killings” in the West Bank. Earlier this month, Medecins Sans Frontieres reported that for Palestinians in the West Bank, 2023 was the deadliest year on record due to Israeli military attacks and extremist settler violence.
Updated
Palestine’s ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot, has hailed South Africa’s decision to launch a case against Israel in the International Court of Justice in which it accused Israel of carrying out “genocidal” acts in Gaza.
In a tweet on Saturday, Zomlot wrote:
Justice must be served and the #genocide must stop.
Justice must be served and the #genocide must stop.
— Husam Zomlot (@hzomlot) December 30, 2023
🇵🇸🇿🇦✊🏽 https://t.co/05amNf8sna
South Africa’s decision comes as Israeli strikes have killed more than 21,500 Palestinians since 7 October.
In November, a group of independent UN human rights experts warned that “grave violations committed by Israel against Palestinians … point to a genocide in the making”.
Updated
The Palestinian Liberation Front’s armed wing announced on Saturday that an Israeli soldier it was holding captive had been killed in an Israeli airstrike, which also injured some of his captors, Reuters reports.
According to an audio speech broadcast by Al Araby television, an Abu Ali Mustafa brigades spokesperson said that the Israeli airstrike occurred after a failed attempt by Israeli forces to rescue the soldier.
The spokesperson gave no details of when the soldier had been taken captive, or where he had been held in Gaza.
Updated
Israel targeted Aleppo with an airstrike on Saturday, causing material damage, the Syrian defense ministry said in a statement, Reuters reports.
“Israel carried out an aerial aggression from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea, west of Latakia, targeting a number of points south of the city of Aleppo,” the statement said.
In Jerusalem, an Israeli military spokesperson declined to comment.
Updated
UNRWA: 40% of Gaza's population at risk of famine
40% of Gaza’s population is at risk of famine, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency said on Saturday.
“Every day is a struggle for survival, finding food and water,” the UN agency for Palestinian refugees added.
📍#Gaza is grappling with catastrophic hunger. 40% of the population are now at risk of famine.
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) December 30, 2023
Every day is a struggle for survival, finding food and water.
We need regular supplies and safe + sustainable humanitarian access across the #GazaStrip https://t.co/gdG1hsxIdS
As millions of Palestinians displaced by Israeli strikes face shortages in food, water and medical supplies, the UN “strongly condemned” reports on Saturday that Israeli troops opened fire on an aid convoy in the strip on Thursday.
A UN-backed report published earlier this month found that Gaza’s entire 2.3 million population is facing crisis levels of hunger as Israel continues its deadly strikes across the strip which have already killed over 21,500 Palestinians.
Updated
Summary
Here’s a roundup of the key developments of the day so far:
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has told the BBC that it estimates that at least 100,000 people have moved into Rafah, the most southerly city in Gaza, in the last few days as fighting has intensified in and around Khan Younis and elsewhere. The displacement follows orders from Israeli forces urging civilians to flee parts of Gaza where Israel says Hamas has a stronghold.
Fierce Israeli tank fire and aerial bombing struck Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip on Friday night, residents said, after more than 200 people were reported killed in 24 hours in Israel’s campaign against Hamas militants. Reuters reports that planes also carried out a series of airstrikes on the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, according to medics and Palestinian journalists.
Israeli warplanes struck two urban refugee camps in central Gaza on Saturday. Residents in the urban refugee camps of Nuseirat and Bureij, two recent hotspots of combat, reported Israeli airstrikes overnight and into Saturday.
A total of 21,672 Palestinians have been killed and 56,165 have been wounded in Israeli strikes in Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in Gaza said on Saturday. The figures include 165 Palestinians killed and 250 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
Juliette Touma from the UN aid agency UNRWA told the BBC “the humanitarian needs on the ground have continued to massively grow”. She said: “Nowhere is safe in Gaza, not the north, not the middle and not the south.”
A Palestinian journalist working for Al-Quds TV was killed along with some of his family members in an airstrike on their house in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza Strip, health officials and fellow journalists said. The government media office of Hamas-run Gaza says 106 Palestinian journalists have been killed in the Israeli offensive.
One person has been injured at an Israeli military post in the West Bank, in a suspected ramming attack, according to reports. The driver was shot at before being detained by Israeli forces, the Jerusalem Post reports.
South Africa has launched a case against Israel at the UN’s international court of justice (ICJ) accusing the state of committing genocide in its military campaign in Gaza. Israel responded to the allegations “with disgust”, calling South Africa’s case a “blood libel” and urging the ICJ to reject it. Any case at the ICJ is likely to take years to resolve, but South Africa has called for the court to convene in the next few days to issue “provisional measures” calling for a ceasefire.
The UN’s top aid official has “strongly condemned” reports that Israeli troops opened fire on an aid convoy in the Gaza Strip. The director of UNRWA earlier on Friday accused Israel of firing on an aid convoy on Thursday as it returned from northern Gaza along a route designated by the Israeli army. Martin Griffiths, the UN emergency relief coordinator, said the convoy was fired upon despite being “clearly marked”, adding: “Attacks on humanitarian workers are unlawful.”
The Biden administration has again bypassed congressional review for weapons sale to Israel. The US state department said the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, informed Congress that he had made a second emergency determination covering a $147.5m sale for equipment required to make the 155mm shells that Israel has already purchased function.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said he was “very concerned” about the growing threat of infectious diseases facing Gaza’s people. Nearly 180,000 people were suffering upper respiratory infections and about 136,400 cases of diarrhoea – half among children under five – had been recorded since mid-October, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a social media post.
The IDF said it located and destroyed a hideout belonging to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in northern Gaza. An investigation by IDF troops found the apartment, located on the outskirts of Gaza City, as well as a large tunnel system under it which was part of a network used by senior Hamas members, an IDF spokesperson said.
Updated
One person has been injured at an Israeli military post in the West Bank, in a suspected ramming attack, according to reports.
The driver was shot at before being detained by Israeli forces, the Jerusalem Post reports.
The incident happened at the Beit Hagai intersection near Hebron on Saturday, the newspaper said.
A similar incident on Friday left five Israeli soldiers injured – including one seriously – close to the entrance to the Palestinian village of Aboud near Hebron, the Post said.
Here are some of the latest images coming out of Gaza.
Updated
100,000 have fled to Rafah in recent days, UN says
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has told the BBC that it estimates that at least 100,000 people have moved into Rafah, the most southerly city in Gaza, in the last few days as fighting has intensified in and around Khan Younis and elsewhere.
The displacement follows orders from Israeli forces urging civilians to flee parts of Gaza where Israel says Hamas has a stronghold.
The OCHA says the influx of people has made overcrowding worse and put pressure on limited resources.
Speaking from Rafah in southern Gaza, the director of UNRWA, the UN’s relief agency, Tom White told the BBC there are “well over a million people” seeking safety in the city.
As a consequence of overcrowding, White said thousands of people are sleeping outside “under flimsy pieces of plastic”.
Summary
Here’s a roundup of the key developments of the day so far:
Fierce Israeli tank fire and aerial bombing struck Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip on Friday night, residents said, after more than 200 people were reported killed in 24 hours in Israel’s campaign against Hamas militants. Reuters reports that planes also carried out a series of airstrikes on the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, according to medics and Palestinian journalists.
Israeli warplanes struck two urban refugee camps in central Gaza on Saturday. Residents in the urban refugee camps of Nuseirat and Bureij, two recent hotspots of combat, reported Israeli airstrikes overnight and into Saturday.
A total of 21,672 Palestinians have been killed and 56,165 have been wounded in Israeli strikes in Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in Gaza said on Saturday. The figures include 165 Palestinians killed and 250 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
Juliette Touma from the UN aid agency UNRWA told the BBC “the humanitarian needs on the ground have continued to massively grow”. She said: “Nowhere is safe in Gaza, not the north, not the middle and not the south.”
A Palestinian journalist working for Al-Quds TV was killed along with some of his family members in an airstrike on their house in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza Strip, health officials and fellow journalists said. The government media office of Hamas-run Gaza says 106 Palestinian journalists have been killed in the Israeli offensive.
South Africa has launched a case against Israel at the UN’s international court of justice (ICJ) accusing the state of committing genocide in its military campaign in Gaza. Israel responded to the allegations “with disgust”, calling South Africa’s case a “blood libel” and urging the ICJ to reject it. Any case at the ICJ is likely to take years to resolve, but South Africa has called for the court to convene in the next few days to issue “provisional measures” calling for a ceasefire.
The UN’s top aid official has “strongly condemned” reports that Israeli troops opened fire on an aid convoy in the Gaza Strip. The director of UNRWA earlier on Friday accused Israel of firing on an aid convoy on Thursday as it returned from northern Gaza along a route designated by the Israeli army. Martin Griffiths, the UN emergency relief coordinator, said the convoy was fired upon despite being “clearly marked”, adding: “Attacks on humanitarian workers are unlawful.”
The Biden administration has again bypassed congressional review for weapons sale to Israel. The US state department said the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, informed Congress that he had made a second emergency determination covering a $147.5m sale for equipment required to make the 155mm shells that Israel has already purchased function.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said he was “very concerned” about the growing threat of infectious diseases facing Gaza’s people. Nearly 180,00 people were suffering upper respiratory infections and about 136,400 cases of diarrhoea – half among children under five – had been recorded since mid-October, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a social media post.
The IDF said it located and destroyed a hideout belonging to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in northern Gaza. An investigation by IDF troops found the apartment, located on the outskirts of Gaza City, as well as a large tunnel system under it which was part of a network used by senior Hamas members, an IDF spokesperson said.
Updated
A total of 21,672 Palestinians have been killed and 56,165 have been wounded in Israeli strikes in Gaza since 7 October, the health ministry in Gaza said on Saturday.
The figures include 165 Palestinians killed and 250 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
Juliette Touma from the UN Aid Agency UNRWA has spoken to the BBC about the situation in Gaza. She said “the humanitarian needs on the ground have continued to massively grow”.
We continue to have restrictions to access areas in the Gaza Strip where we should access on a regular basis, like the north of the Gaza Strip.
There’s very, very little commercial supplies coming into Gaza and there’s no market, so more and more people are depending by the day, by the hour, on organisations like UNRWA.
It’s safe to say that every single person in Gaza, a population of 2.2 million people is impacted one way or another.
She also spoke about where the people displaced by the war in Gaza are now living.
She said:
At least 1.4 million people are now living in UNRWA facilities – that is what used to be mainly schools that the agency ran until the war began.
Many are now living anywhere they can find – on the street, with friends crammed in apartments – 70 people in one apartment, and those who can afford it are renting rooms.
But many are living in the open, in the parks, in the open areas, in their cars, people are searching for safety which they cannot find because there is no safety in Gaza.
Nowhere is safe in Gaza, not the north, not the middle and not the south.
Updated
165 Palestinians killed in past 24 hours
Some 165 Palestinians have been killed and 250 wounded in Israeli strikes in central Gaza during the past 24 hours, a senior health official said on Saturday.
At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the biggest and most important medical facility in the south of the tiny, crowded enclave, Red Crescent images posted online showed ambulances operating amid smashed streets, carrying injured children, Reuters reports.
On Saturday the Palestinian Culture Ministry said Israeli strikes had struck a medieval bathhouse. The old Great Mosque was hit earlier in the war.
Updated
Israeli warplanes struck two urban refugee camps in central Gaza on Saturday, Associated Press reports.
Residents in the urban refugee camps of Nuseirat and Bureij, two recent hotspots of combat, reported Israeli airstrikes overnight and into Saturday.
Nuseirat resident Mustafa Abu Wawee said a strike hit the home of one of his relatives, killing two people.
“The [Israeli] occupation is doing everything to force people to leave,” he said over the phone while searching along with others for four people missing under the rubble. “They want to break our spirit and will but they will fail. We are here to stay.”
Bureij resident Rami Abu Mosab said sounds of gunfire echoed across the camp overnight, followed by heavy airstrikes on Saturday.
With Israeli forces pushing deeper into Khan Younis and the camps of central Gaza, tens of thousands of Palestinians streamed into the already crowded city of Rafah at the southernmost end of Gaza in recent days.
Drone footage showed a vast camp of thousands of tents and makeshift shacks set up on what had been empty land on Rafah’s western outskirts next to UN warehouses. People arrived in Rafah in trucks, in carts and on foot.
Those who did not find space in the already overwhelmed shelters put up tents on roadsides slick with mud from winter rains.
Updated
Fighting has been raging across Gaza this morning, where displaced Palestinians are “exhausted” with no end in sight to war between the besieged territory’s Hamas rulers and Israel, now in its 13th week, AFP reports.
Smoke billowed over the Gaza Strip’s southern city of Khan Younis, the focus of recent fighting in the grinding war.
Further south, the border city of Rafah near Egypt was teeming with Palestinians seeking safety from Israel’s relentless bombardment in its fight against militants.
“Enough with this war! We are totally exhausted,” Umm Louay Abu Khater, a 49-year-old woman who had fled her home in Khan Younis, taking refuge in Rafah, told AFP.
She said:
We are constantly displaced from one place to another in cold weather. The bombs keep falling on us day and night.
There was continuous artillery shelling overnight in Rafah and Khan Younis.
The Israeli army kept up its campaign following the attack by Hamas on Israel on 7 October, despite mounting international pushback, reporting “fierce battles” and air strikes across the narrow Palestinian territory.
In Beit Lahia in north Gaza, “two Hamas military compounds were dismantled by the troops”, a military statement on Saturday said, and dozens of “terrorists” were killed in Gaza City.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images on the newswires coming from Israel and Palestine.
Updated
A Palestinian journalist working for Al-Quds TV was killed along with some of his family members in an airstrike on their house in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza Strip, health officials and fellow journalists said.
The government media office of Hamas-run Gaza says 106 Palestinian journalists have been killed in the Israeli offensive, Reuters reports.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said last week that the first 10 weeks of the Israel-Gaza war were the deadliest recorded for journalists, with the most journalists killed in a single year in one location.
Most of the journalists and media workers killed in the war were Palestinian. The report by the US-based CPJ said it was “particularly concerned about an apparent pattern of targeting of journalists and their families by the Israeli military”.
Earlier this month, a Reuters investigation found an Israeli tank crew killed a Reuters journalist, Issam Abdallah, and wounded six reporters in Lebanon on 13 October by firing two shells in quick succession while the journalists were filming cross-border shelling.
Israel has previously said it has never and will never deliberately target journalists and that it is doing what it can to avoid civilian casualties.
The high death toll has caused concern even among its staunchest allies.
Updated
Israeli forces pound Gaza as Palestinian officials say nearly 200 killed in a day
Fierce Israeli tank fire and aerial bombing struck Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip on Friday night, residents said, after nearly 200 people were reported killed in 24 hours in Israel’s campaign against Hamas militants.
Reuters reports that planes also carried out a series of airstrikes on the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, according to medics and Palestinian journalists.
Israeli forces have been pounding Khan Younis in preparation for an anticipated further advance into the main southern city, swathes of which they captured in early December.
The defence minister, Yoav Gallant, said troops were reaching Hamas command centres and arms depots. The Israeli military said it had destroyed a tunnel complex in the basement of one of the houses of the Hamas leader for Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, in Gaza City.
Health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza said 187 Palestinians were confirmed killed in Israeli strikes in the 24-hour period, raising the overall toll to 21,507. Thousands more bodies are feared to be buried in the ruins of neighbourhoods.
Opening summary
Welcome to our live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war with me, Adam Fulton. It’s 9.30am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv on this 30 December. Here’s a rundown on the latest developments.
Intense Israeli tank fire and aerial bombing hit the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Friday night, residents said, after nearly 200 people were killed in 24 hours in Israel’s offensive in the strip, according to Gaza health authorities.
Planes also carried out a series of airstrikes on the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, medics and Palestinian journalists said.
Israel’s defence minister said troops were reaching Hamas command centres and arms depots, while the Israeli military said it had destroyed a tunnel complex in the basement of one of the houses of the Hamas leader for Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, in Gaza City.
More on those stories shortly. In other news:
South Africa has launched a case against Israel at the UN’s international court of justice (ICJ) accusing the state of committing genocide in its military campaign in Gaza. Israel responded to the allegations “with disgust”, calling South Africa’s case a “blood libel” and urging the ICJ to reject it. Any case at the ICJ is likely to take years to resolve, but South Africa has called for the court to convene in the next few days to issue “provisional measures” calling for a ceasefire.
The UN’s top aid official has “strongly condemned” reports that Israeli troops opened fire on an aid convoy in the Gaza Strip. The director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) earlier on Friday accused Israel of firing on an aid convoy on Thursday as it returned from northern Gaza along a route designated by the Israeli army. Martin Griffiths, the UN emergency relief coordinator, said the convoy was fired upon despite being “clearly marked”, adding: “Attacks on humanitarian workers are unlawful.”
Qatari mediators have told Israel that Hamas has “agreed in principle” to resume talks on the release of further hostages held in Gaza, according to a report by Israel’s Walla news on Friday. But a senior Hamas official later told Al Jazeera there was currently no talk of a hostage exchange before fighting in Gaza stops. Separately, a delegation of high-level Hamas leaders is visiting Egypt for talks aimed at bringing the Gaza war to an end.
At least 21,507 people have been killed in Gaza since the war with Israel broke out nearly 12 weeks ago, included 187 fatalities over the previous 24 hours, according to Friday’s figures from the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. At least 308 people were killed while in UN shelters in Gaza since the war began, the UNRWA said.
The Biden administration has again bypassed congressional review for weapons sale to Israel. The US state department said the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, informed Congress that he had made a second emergency determination covering a $147.5m sale for equipment required to make the 155mm shells that Israel has already purchased function.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said he was “very concerned” about the growing threat of infectious diseases facing Gaza’s people. Nearly 180,00 people were suffering upper respiratory infections and about 136,400 cases of diarrhoea – half among children under five – had been recorded since mid-October, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a social media post.
Israel detained at least 14 Palestinians, including a child, during its latest raids inside the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Palestinian news agency Wafa said on Friday. A day earlier, the UN published a report deploring what it said was a “rapid deterioration” of human rights in the West Bank and urged Israeli authorities to end violence against the Palestinian population there.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, is “gravely concerned” about a further spillover of the Gaza conflict which could have “devastating” consequences for the entire region, his spokesperson has said. In a statement on Friday, Guterres warned of a “continued risk of wider regional conflagration” the longer the conflict in Gaza continued.
Three Palestinian brothers who were detained by Israeli soldiers in Gaza have said they and other men were beaten, stripped to their underwear, burnt with cigarettes and subjected to other forms of mistreatment during their detention. Sobhi Yaseen and his brothers Sady and Ibrahim told Reuters they were taken by the Israeli military from their homes in northern Gaza early this month and held for up to two weeks. In response, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson’s office said it was operating “to dismantle Hamas’ military capabilities” and detainees were treated in accordance with international law.
The IDF said it located and destroyed a hideout belonging to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in northern Gaza. An investigation by IDF troops found the apartment, located on the outskirts of Gaza City, as well as a large tunnel system under it which was part of a network used by senior Hamas members, an IDF spokesperson said.
Iran announced it had hanged four people it claims were engaged in “sabotage” on behalf of Israel. The three men and one woman had been sentenced to death on charges of “moharebeh”, or “waging war against God”, and “corruption on Earth” through their “collaboration with the Zionist regime”, and were executed in Iran’s north-west province of West Azerbaijan.
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