‘If you don’t die from air strikes, you die from starvation’
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Muhammad Shehada, a spokesman for the Euro-Med Monitor, says Israeli operations have turned the north of Gaza into an “extermination zone”. “That is Israeli journalists using that term as well as a ‘sterile zone’ or a ‘death zone,'” he told Al Jazeera from Copenhagen.
“Early on in this war, [Israeli forces] threw pamphlets on the northern half of Gaza and said every single person who stays behind in the north is going to be dealt with as an accomplice to a terror organisation. So every single person in the northern half of Gaza is treated as a terrorist suspect and is guilty until proven innocent.
“That’s on the one hand. On the other hand, the northern half of Gaza is systematically denied any access to food, medical care, water, fuel, aid or electricity. It’s literally a death zone: if you don’t die from air strikes, you will die from starvation,” said Shehada.
Israel is in a "multi-arena war," defense minister says
From CNN's Amir Tal, Israel’s defense minister has said the country is in a “multi-arena war,” with Israel being attacked from seven arenas.
Yoav Gallant, while speaking to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in the Israeli parliament, warned of a long fight ahead of the country. "We are in a multi-arena war, we are being attacked from seven different sectors: Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria, Iraq, Yemen and Iran," said Gallant, using the biblical names — Judea and Samaria — for the West Bank.
"We have already responded and acted in six of these decrees, and I say here in the most explicit way: Anyone who acts against us is a potential target, there is no immunity for anyone," he added. Gallant's comments follow Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks Monday that the war is far from over, after the Israeli leader visited Gaza for the second time since October 7.
Differences remain between US and Israel but both are "on the same side" in war, Israeli official says
From CNN's Priscilla Alvarez, A senior Israeli official told CNN that while there are differences between the US and Israel over Israel's war with Hamas, both countries want to see the end of the the militant group.
“We can have different discussions on this tactical issue or that tactical issue. We listen very attentively to whatever Washington says, and I believe they listen very carefully to whatever we say to them,” said Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “But ultimately, we’re on the same side of this. We want to see Hamas destroyed.”
Ron Dermer, considered one of Netanyahu’s closest confidants, is expected to meet with officials from the White House and the State Department Tuesday to discuss the next phase of the war in Gaza, CNN has reported. The meetings come as the US has looked for Israel to move away from the high-intensity war it has waged for nearly three months in Gaza. Regev said “it’s only a matter of time” before Israel has victory in northern Gaza, arguing that reconstruction in the enclave can’t happen until Hamas is eliminated.
Netanyahu: Israeli forces ‘deepening the fighting’ in southern Gaza
Israeli prime minister has again sent the message that the intensity of fighting would not soften any time soon.
In a video posted on X, Netanyahu said to Hamas: “We see you and we will come to you”. “We are continuing the war, deepening the fighting in the southern Gaza Strip and elsewhere,” he said. “We fight to the end.”
The latest message comes as pressure has grown on Israel – including from close allies – to do more to prevent civilian casualties, particularly in the south where hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled. For its part, the US has said it wants Israel to move to a “lower intensity” phase of the fighting, but officials have said they will not impose terms or timelines on Israel.
All this creating a new generation of further traumatized people, for those that survive
MSF: ‘No safe place, no security for Gaza children’
Doctors Beyond Borders (Medicins Sans Frontieres, or MSF), have stressed that while their mental health teams are working with the emotional wellbeing of children in Gaza, there remains no safe place for them.
“Children have been exposed to extremely traumatic episodes with some patients recovering from physical injuries and some having lost family members,” MSF said in a post on X. “Their coping strategies have been taken away from them. There is no safe place and no sense of security. It must stop now.”
Last month, a report by MSF said that children in Gaza are experiencing a whole host of signs and symptoms of trauma including anxiety, fear, nightmares and disturbing memories, insomnia, bottling up emotions and withdrawing from loved ones.
Our mental health teams have been addressing the psychological toll of war & displacement on children’s emotional wellbeing in Gaza.
For a little insight into their mental health, we share a drawing from a 13-year-old child, explained by Audrey Mc Mahon, MSF child psychiatrist. pic.twitter.com/4hWEIQNeji
— MSF International (@MSF) December 26, 2023
While the North is completely cut off, the South isn't doing much better
People in Rafah have ‘nowhere to go and nothing to eat’: WFP official
Samer AbdelJaber, the country director for the UN agency, has made the latest appeal for more aid for the millions of displaced Palestinians in Gaza. In the southernmost city of Rafah, he said, people are setting up tents “wherever they can”. While humanitarian groups are handing out food parcels, he said it is “not enough for everyone”.
And as @zeldaring already said, the IDF keeps bragging about their war crimes for all to see
So much for, we will only check for bombs and they will have their clothes returned immediately, after the first 'uproar'. Also more and more stories about torture and executions keep coming out. This is what the US has created by keeping Israel unaccountable for decades.
The attacks on the West Bank keep getting worse as well
Prominent Palestinian politician arrested
The Israeli army says it has arrested senior Palestinian politician Khalida Jarrar in the occupied West Bank, along with other activists of her leftist party.
Jarrar, 60, a prominent figure in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), had previously been arrested by Israeli forces in October 2019 and released in September the following year after being held without trial. The PFLP, in a statement, said Israel’s army launched a “vast campaign on Tuesday morning to arrest leaders” of the group in the occupied West Bank. “These arrests will not break the will of our people,” it said.
Demolitions reported in Furush Beit Dajan, Deir Ballut: UN
The UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territories says demolitions have been reported in Furush Beit Dajan and yesterday in Deir Ballut, in the occupied West Bank. The UN agency classes demolished structures as including residential buildings, “livelihood-related, service-related or part of infrastructure”. Since the beginning of 2023, 1,094 structures have been demolished in the occupied West Bank and at least 2,127 Palestinians have been displaced.
