Palestinian journalist documents the destruction of an entire neighborhood in northern Gaza
New video shot in the northwestern part of Gaza shows an extraordinary level of destruction in an area near the coast. The video, shot by journalist Fadi Al-Wahidi, shows what remains of the neighborhood bisected by Al-Rashid Street, which runs northwest of the district of Beit Lahiya. It is the closest northern area to the border with Israel.
The video shows that the entire neighborhood has been leveled. There is not a single building standing. CNN is unable to geolocate the video for lack of landmarks. Despite the devastation, people are now returning to what remains of their homes in the neighborhood, after Israeli troops withdrew from the area, Al-Wahidi told CNN.
International aid agencies say they have little access to northern Gaza and that food scarcity there has worsened. Fighting has continued there sporadically. Al-Wahidi, who is from nearby Jabalya, told CNN that this part of Al-Rashid Street had been resurfaced and landscaped just a few months before the war. Most of the area's coastal resort houses have now been destroyed, the journalist added. His visit to the area on Wednesday was the first time Al-Wahidi had seen the sea since the latest Israel-Hamas war began, he said.
Palestinian detainees share accounts of torture
Palestinian detainees are sharing harrowing accounts of humiliation and ill-treatment in Israeli detention.
“More evidence of torture has been shown today,” Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum reported from Rafah. “Dozens of Palestinians have been released from Israeli detention with different signs of torture on their bodies. They have been beaten on the head. They have broken arms, many reporting that they were humiliated in detention, denied proper access to food and water, prevented from going to the toilet.”
Israel held Gaza woman, 82, as ‘unlawful combatant’: Report
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that Israel held an 82-year-old woman from Gaza with Alzheimer’s as an “unlawful combatant” for two months.
The reporter Amira Hass writes that Fahamiya Khalidi was arrested in early December at a school she was sheltering in after being displaced by Israeli shelling. She was held in Damon Prison, where a lawyer from the organisation Physicians for Human Rights was prevented from meeting with her because she was imprisoned under the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law, the report said. She was released two weeks ago after an appeal was filed, Hass reported.
‘Israeli soldiers didn’t stop beating us, insulting us and swearing at us’
Here’s the full account of Khalid al-Nabrees:
“When we got an evacuation warning, we left our place and headed towards the sea. The moment we arrived at the security checkpoint, the Israeli soldiers kidnapped us. We were not even given a chance to ask any question. We spent the first three days without food or water. We were not allowed to go to the toilets. We were beaten harshly all over the first three days.
“After that, they moved us to another place for some new methods of torture. After a three-day starvation, they gave us a meal that is not enough for a child. “In the prison, you are allowed to sleep in the yard where the weather is very cold and where you have only a very thin mattress and a very wet blanket. The Israeli soldiers didn’t stop beating us, insulting us and swearing at us all the time.”
‘Worst 10 days of my life’: Palestinian, 70, on Israeli detention
Account of Mahmoud Hassan Abdel Kadel al-Nabulsi:
“I was at home when the army stormed my house. I told them I am sick and I can’t move. They took me out of my house and put me in an armoured vehicle. I thought at the beginning they would take me to the hospital, but instead, they took me to Israel.
“I spent 10 days in Israel, where they hit me, insulted me and humiliated me every day. I feel pain everywhere in my body. They forced us to bend on our knees for hours. They kept asking me about the tunnels and about their captives held by Hamas. I told them I am 70 years old and I know nothing about these matters. They hit me a lot when I couldn’t find an answer to their questions.
“I swear to God that I didn’t have a single drop of water for four days. It was the worst 10 days of my life.”
Fighting intensifies in Khan Younis
In the past couple of hours, the Israeli military has focused its operations on Khan Younis, especially around hospitals, which have been under siege. Israel has claimed that medical facilities are being used by Hamas as headquarters for resistance on the ground. Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis was stormed earlier and there are reports of at least 10 people being critically injured. Evacuation zones to the west are also consistently stormed by the Israeli military.
Meanwhile, we are receiving reports that the Israeli military is withdrawing from Gaza City, which the army described as a tactical withdrawal along a certain axis.
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