Main events on December 10th
- Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinian families across Gaza are bracing for heavy rainfall and flooding as a major winter storm hits the bombarded enclave.
- Israel has confirmed it attacked Palestinians near the so-called yellow line in northern Gaza, killing one person; medical sources told Al Jazeera that a Palestinian child was killed in Israeli fire near Jabalia.
- Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar says Israel will not back down from its demand that Hamas be disarmed as part of the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire.
- The UN’s peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL) says the Israeli military fired at peacekeepers who were patrolling the Blue Line – an unofficial “border” between Lebanon and Israel – in southern Lebanon on Tuesday.
- Iceland has become the fifth country to announce that it will not take part in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest after organisers confirmed Israel’s participation last week.
A thunderstorm is seen over a tent camp for displaced Palestinians in az-Zawayda, the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, December 10
UK Parliament Speaker rebukes Deputy PM over pro-Gaza prisoners’ hunger strike
In an extraordinary development, British parliament’s Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, has come down heavily on the country’s Justice Secretary and Deputy PM, David Lammy, over the controversy surrounding the hunger strike launched by a group of pro-Palestinian prisoners. This was after two MPs drew the Speaker’s attention to the fact that Lammy had refused to even acknowledge their correspondence over the issue. Rifat Jawaid looks at the treatment meted out to prisoners in the absence of a fair trial.
“It has always been a genocide for us” Mosab Abu Toha
In this address at the 2025 UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Palestinian poet and writer Mosab Abu Toha speaks as a survivor and witness. He recounts his family’s history of displacement from Yaffa, his birth in a refugee camp, his abduction and torture, and the loss of loved ones to Israeli airstrikes. He rejects symbolic language in favor of action, saying, “Humanitarian aid, food, medicine, shelter, should not require a UN resolution,” and insists that “ending the suffering of a besieged population should never be conditional or negotiable.” He calls for an end to occupation, accountability for war crimes, reparations, and protection for Palestinians, stressing that what is needed is not another peace plan but “a justice plan.” A
bu Toha then turns to poetry, reading excerpts that capture childhood dreams, loss, and life “under the rubble” in Gaza. His words document bodies unrecovered, homes destroyed, and children growing up amid bombardment, asking repeatedly, “Where should people go?” The reading closes with reflections on memory, grief, and survival, as he describes a place where even souls, like bodies, remain trapped beneath the ruins.
