This blog is closing now. Here is a summary of today's events...
Demonstrators arrested outside Netanyahu’s Jerusalem home. Five Israeli demonstrators protesting for the release of hostages taken by Hamas on October 7 have been arrested outside the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.
Gaza Health Minstry reported that Israel detained hospital a director in northern Gaza on Saturday. However, the director of Adwan Hospital, Hussam Abu Safiya, denied he was arrested.“All that is being circulated about Dr. Hussam Abu Safia being arrested is false news,” his Instagram account posted.
Almost one in five children live in conflict zones, says Unicef. Nearly one in five of the world’s children live in areas affected by conflicts, with more than 473 million children suffering from the worst levels of violence since the second world war, according to figures published by the UN. “The impact on children’s mental health is also huge,” Unicef said. A study backed by the charity War Child earlier this month reported that 96% of children in Gaza felt that their death was imminent and almost half wanted to die as a result of the trauma they had been through.
A senior official from Libya’s UN-recognised government met Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa on Saturday and discussed issues including diplomatic relations, energy and migration. “We expressed our full support for the Syrian authorities in the success of the important transitional phase,” Libyan Minister of State for Communication and Political Affairs Walid Ellafi told reporters after the meeting.
A delegation from Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish DEM party visited jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan on Saturday for the first time in 10 years, the Agence France-Presse reports. Ocalan is serving a life sentence on a prison island off Istanbul DEM’s predecessor, the HDP party, last met Ocalan in April 2015. “The delegation left in the morning,” a party source told AFP, without disclosing how they would reach the island over security concenrs.
The head of the World Health Organization said on Friday he was not sure he was going to survive, Reuters reports. Speaking after his ordeal at the Sanaa International Airport in Yemen on Thursday, which was bombed by Israeli forces targeting the Iran-aligned Houthi movement, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the air raid was so deafening that his ears were still ringing over a day later.
The WHO has reiterated its call for a ceasefire. “This raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital comes after escalating restrictions on access for WHO and partners, and repeated attacks on or near the facility since early October,” the WHO said. “Such hostilities and the raids are undoing all our efforts and support to keep the facility minimal functional. The systematic dismantling of the health system in Gaza is a death sentence for tens of thousands of Palestinians in need of health care.”
45,436 Palestinians killed since war began. At least 45,436 Palestinian people have been killed and 108,038 injured in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said. Of those, 37 Palestinians were killed and 98 injured in the latest 24-hour reporting period, the ministry said.
Turkey’s pro-Kurd party meets jailed PKK leader
A delegation from Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish DEM party visited jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan on Saturday for the first time in 10 years, the Agence France-Presse reports. Ocalan is serving a life sentence on a prison island off Istanbul
DEM’s predecessor, the HDP party, last met Ocalan in April 2015.
“The delegation left in the morning,” a party source told AFP, without disclosing how they would reach the island over security concenrs.
Ocalan founded the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) nearly 50 years ago and has served his time in solitary confinement for 25 years after originally being sentenced to death. He escaped the gallows after Turkey abolished capital punishment in 2004
Turkey, the United States and the EU regard the PKK as a “terror” organisation.
The DEM party delegation is made up of two lawmakers - Sirri Sureyya Onder and Pervin Buldan. DEM’s co-chair Tuncer Bakirhan said he hoped the talks with Ocalan would “open a new era” for a democratic settlement to the Kurdish problem.
“While I speak here, our delegation is currently meeting with Mr Abdullah Ocalan at Imrali (island). We believe it’s important,” he told reporters in the Uludere district near the Iraqi border.
“Imrali’s door must be unlocked,” Bakirhan said.
“I hope that the discussions there will enable the Kurdish issue to be resolved through democratic means and on a democratic basis.”
Saturday’s rare was made possible after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s nationalist ally Devlet Bahceli invited Ocalan to visit parliament to renounce “terror” and to disband the militant group.
President Erdogan backed the unprecedented appeal as a “historic window of opportunity”.
“My dear Kurdish brothers, we expect you to firmly grasp (Bahceli’s) sincerely outstretched hand,” he said in October, urging them to join in efforts to build what he called the “century of Turkey”.
A senior official from Libya’s UN-recognised government met Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa on Saturday and discussed issues including diplomatic relations, energy and migration.
“We expressed our full support for the Syrian authorities in the success of the important transitional phase,” Libyan Minister of State for Communication and Political Affairs Walid Ellafi told reporters after the meeting.
“We emphasised the importance of coordination and cooperation... particularly on security and military issues,” he said, while they also discussed cooperation “related to energy and trade” and “illegal immigration”.
Syrian refugees fleeing war since 2011 have frequently journeyed to Libya to find work or a way navigate across the Mediterranean towards Europe.
Ellafi said they also discussed “the importance of raising diplomatic representation between the two countries”.
“Today the charge d’affaires attended the meeting with me and we are seeking a permanent ambassador,” he added.
Here are the some of the latest images from photographers on the ground in Gaza:
Summary of the day so far...
Demonstrators arrested outside Netanyahu’s Jerusalem home. Five Israeli demonstrators protesting for the release of hostages taken by Hamas on October 7 have been arrested outside the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.
Gaza Health Minstry reported that Israel detained hospital a director in northern Gaza on Saturday. However, the director of Adwan Hospital, Hussam Abu Safiya, denied he was arrested.“All that is being circulated about Dr. Hussam Abu Safia being arrested is false news,” his Instagram account posted.
Almost one in five children live in conflict zones, says Unicef. Nearly one in five of the world’s children live in areas affected by conflicts, with more than 473 million children suffering from the worst levels of violence since the second world war, according to figures published by the UN. “The impact on children’s mental health is also huge,” Unicef said. A study backed by the charity War Child earlier this month reported that 96% of children in Gaza felt that their death was imminent and almost half wanted to die as a result of the trauma they had been through.
The head of the World Health Organization said on Friday he was not sure he was going to survive, Reuters reports. Speaking after his ordeal at the Sanaa International Airport in Yemen on Thursday, which was bombed by Israeli forces targeting the Iran-aligned Houthi movement, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the air raid was so deafening that his ears were still ringing over a day later.
The WHO has reiterated its call for a ceasefire. “This raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital comes after escalating restrictions on access for WHO and partners, and repeated attacks on or near the facility since early October,” the WHO said. “Such hostilities and the raids are undoing all our efforts and support to keep the facility minimal functional. The systematic dismantling of the health system in Gaza is a death sentence for tens of thousands of Palestinians in need of health care.”
45,436 Palestinians killed since war began. At least 45,436 Palestinian people have been killed and 108,038 injured in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said. Of those, 37 Palestinians were killed and 98 injured in the latest 24-hour reporting period, the ministry said.
Hospital director not detained by Israel according to Instagram post
Instagram account reportedly belonging to the director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, Hussam Abu Safiya, posted that he was not arrested by Israeli forces.
Officials from the Gaza Health Ministry said that the IDF detained Abu Safiya was along with dozens of the medical staff during the military’s assault on the hospital.
“All that is being circulated about Dr. Hussam Abu Safia being arrested is false news,” says a statement published to his Instagram story.
“Thank God he is fine, but the communications and network are very bad,” the message adds, which is seemingly written by someone else and not Abu Safia.
The IDF has not commented on health ministry’s reports or the contradictory Instagram post.
Updated
The Government Media Office that 110,000 out of 135,000 tents used by displaced Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are now out of service and have “completely deteriorated”, Al Jazeera reports.
In a statement on its Telegram channel the office said the Israeli military is “causing a tragic humanitarian crisis” that is threatening the lives of thousands of civilians as freezing temperatures grip the region.
“This catastrophic humanitarian situation is a direct result of the genocide committed by the ‘Israeli’ occupation army, which has completely destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes of these citizens, forcing them to resort to living in tents that lack the minimum requirements for a decent life.”
Patients and wounded people who were expelled at gun point from the Kamal Adwan Hospital to the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza on Friday night are in “a very miserable and difficult situation”, the Gaza Health Ministry says.
The ministry adds that The Israeli army destroyed the infrastructure before the forced evacuation.
“We appeal to all concerned institutions and parties urgently to find a solution for the patients and the injured people who are currently in the Indonesian Hospital,” the ministry says.
BREAKING: The Israeli occupation military has stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, forcing doctors and patients to walk on foot to the southern part of the region. pic.twitter.com/Om0bgLrfH5
— Dr. Mads Gilbert (@DrMadsGilbert) December 27, 2024
Demonstrators arrested outside Netanyahu's Jerusalem home
Five Israeli demonstrators protesting for the release of hostages taken by Hamas on October 7 have been arrested outside the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.
Twenty protestors gathered outside the home in the early morning, shouting through loudspeakers at the prime minister that the hostages were suffering in the tunnels and were “cold, tortured and sick” while he enjoyed home comforts, Channel 12, an Israeli broadcaster, reported.
They also chanted that Netanyahu’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, was the subject of a police investigation, referring to when Israel’s Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara ordered an investigation after a report alleged that she had harassed opponents.
“Everything is closing in on you. We, the people, will not forget and will not forgive,” the protestors shouted while banging on drums and blowing horns.
Police say they were held for violating noise restrictions.
45,436 Palestinians killed since war began
At least 45,436 Palestinian people have been killed and 108,038 injured in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said. Of those, 37 Palestinians were killed and 98 injured in the latest 24-hour reporting period, the ministry said.
CCTV footage shows WHO chief fleeing Yemeni airport amid Israeli strike – video
CCTV footage shows the director general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, escaping a room at Sana’a airport as it was targeted by an Israeli airstrike.
Tensions between Yemen’s Houthi movement and the Israeli government have escalated in recent weeks, with the Houthis intensifying attacks against Israel in an effort to pressure it to end its war in Gaza…
The WHO has reiterated its call for a ceasefire.
“This raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital comes after escalating restrictions on access for WHO and partners, and repeated attacks on or near the facility since early October,” the WHO said.
“Such hostilities and the raids are undoing all our efforts and support to keep the facility minimal functional. The systematic dismantling of the health system in Gaza is a death sentence for tens of thousands of Palestinians in need of health care.”
Hamas denied its militants were present in the hospital, and charged that Israeli forces had stormed the facility on Friday.
“We categorically deny the presence of any military activity or resistance fighters in the hospital,” Hamas said in a statement.
“The enemy’s lies about the hospital aim to justify the heinous crime committed by the occupation army today, involving the evacuation and burning of all hospital departments as part of a plan for extermination and forced displacement.”
This morning’s raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital has put this last major health facility in North #Gaza out of service. Initial reports indicate that some key departments were severely burnt and destroyed during the raid.
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) December 27, 2024
60 health workers and 25 patients in critical condition,… pic.twitter.com/bD5eJgnVkR
The head of the World Health Organization said on Friday he was not sure he was going to survive, Reuters reports.
Speaking after his ordeal at the Sanaa International Airport in Yemen on Thursday, which was bombed by Israeli forces targeting the Iran-aligned Houthi movement, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the air raid was so deafening that his ears were still ringing over a day later.
“I was not sure actually I could survive because it was so close, a few meters from where we were,” he told Reuters. “A slight deviation could have resulted in a direct hit.”
Tedros said after the attack, as he and his colleagues wandered through the debris, they could hear drones zooming overhead, making them worry about further strikes.
“There (was) no shelter at all. Nothing. So you’re just exposed, just waiting for anything to happen,” he said. The Israeli strikes on Yemen came after Houthis repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel in what they describe as acts of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
“So a civilian airport should be protected, whether I am in it or not,” Tedros said, before observing there was “nothing special” about what he had faced in Yemen. “One of my colleagues said we narrowly escaped death. I’m just one human being. So I feel for those who are facing the same thing every single day. But at least it allowed me to feel the way they feel.”
“I’m worried about our world, where it’s heading,” Tedros added, urging world leaders to work together to end global conflicts. “I have never ... as far as I can remember, seen the world really being in such a very dangerous state.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said afterwards that Israel was “just getting started” with the Houthis.
Footage released by Ansar Allah-affiliated Al Masirah TV captured the moment Israeli forces targeted the control tower at Sanaa International Airport, Yemen, while the Director-General of the World Health Organization was in the VIP lounge. The attack seriously injured the… https://t.co/opix9pQitH pic.twitter.com/5kjLb4PumI
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) December 27, 2024
“Usually, we will start to see the people about two years after the cessation of fighting,” Janho says. “So now we have a lot of Yemeni people. Some patients live in rooms in the top floors while their treatment is ongoing, and others will go home and return.
“The worst we see? Probably after the barrel bombs were being dropped on people in Syria.”
Da’ed Almneaid is a clinical psychologist who runs the multi-disciplinary mental health team from an office adorned with the artwork of past patients and smelling strongly of roses…
“The impact on children’s mental health is also huge,” Unicef said. A study backed by the charity War Child earlier this month reported that 96% of children in Gaza felt that their death was imminent and almost half wanted to die as a result of the trauma they had been through.
Children in war zones face a daily struggle for survival that deprives them of a childhood,” Russell said. “Their schools are bombed, homes destroyed, and families torn apart. They lose not only their safety and access to basic life-sustaining necessities, but also their chance to play, to learn, and to simply be children. The world is failing these children. As we look towards 2025, we must do more to turn the tide and save and improve the lives of children
Almost one in five children live in conflict zones, says Unicef
Nearly one in five of the world’s children live in areas affected by conflicts, with more than 473 million children suffering from the worst levels of violence since the second world war, according to figures published by the UN.
The UN humanitarian aid organisation for children, Unicef, said on Saturday that the percentage of children living in conflict zones around the world has doubled from about 10% in the 1990s to almost 19%, and warned that this dramatic increase in harm to children should not become the “new normal”.
With more conflicts being waged around the world than at any time since 1945, Unicef said that children were increasingly falling victim. Citing its latest available data, from 2023, the UN verified a record 32,990 grave violations against 22,557 children, the highest figures since the security council mandated monitoring of the impact of war on the world’s children nearly 20 years ago…
The last major health facility in northern Gaza has been put out of service, the World Health Organization has said, and its director detained according to Gaza officials after an Israeli military operation targeting sites near the Kamal Adwan hospital.
“Initial reports indicate that some key departments were severely burnt and destroyed during the raid,” the WHO said in a statement on X.
Israel’s military said in a statement that the hospital had become a “key stronghold for terrorist organisations and continues to be used as a hideout for terrorist operatives” since Israeli forces began broader operations in northern Gaza in October…
Israel army detains hospital director in northern Gaza
Hello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.
Israeli forces have detained the director of a hospital in the north, Gaza health officials said on Saturday. The World Health Organization (WHO) said the hospital was put out of service by an Israeli raid.
“The occupation forces have taken dozens of the medical staff from Kamal Adwan Hospital to a detention centre for interrogation, including the director, Hossam Abu Safiyeh,” the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said in a statement.
The Gaza civil defence agency reported that Abu Safiyeh had been detained, adding that the agency’s director for the north, Ahmed Hassan al-Kahlout was among those held.
“The occupation has completely destroyed the medical, humanitarian, and civil defence systems in the north, rendering them useless,” Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency, told AFP.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it had launched an operation in the area of Kamal Adwan Hospital, saying the facility was a “key stronghold for terrorist organisations”.
Gazan terrorist group Hamas denied its militants were operating out of the hospital, and charged that Israeli forces had stormed the facility on Friday.
The World Health Organization said the Israeli military operation had put the hospital out of service.
“This morning’s raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital has put this last major health facility in north Gaza out of service. Initial reports indicate that some key departments were severely burnt and destroyed during the raid,” the WHO said in a statement on X.
