At least 3 Palestinians arrested in latest West Bank raids

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office reports that at least three people have been arrested during the latest Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank.

One of the arrests was made during an incursion by Israeli special forces at dawn into the Qayasariyya neighbourhood in Nablus that we reported on earlier. The media office named a young man who was taken from his home in that operation.

In Hebron, a man and his son were arrested in Khirbet Qalqas after their home was attacked by Israeli soldiers.

The Wafa news agency reported that another raid took place in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem, where Israeli police set up a checkpoint and imposed fines on several Palestinian vehicles.

Israeli forces kill Palestinian teenager, confiscate body

Child rights group Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) has shared details of the killing of a 17-year-old Palestinian by Israeli forces over the weekend.

Ahmad Khalil Rajabi was driving his family’s car in Hebron when he was shot dead on Sunday evening. Israeli soldiers then confiscated his body.

The soldiers who opened fire on the teenager tried to justify the killing, accusing him of trying to run over a soldier. His father refuted the accusation. According to him, Ahmad was “visiting a patient at the hospital and was on his way home” when he was shot, the DCIP said in a statement.

Israeli forces and settlers have killed 53 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank so far this year. The confiscation of Ahmad’s remains also marks the 55th body of a Palestinian child that Israel has now withheld from family and relatives since 2016.

“Israel’s practice of withholding Palestinian bodies is a form of collective punishment, a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, and deprives Palestinian families of the ability to lay their children to rest,” the DCIP said.

Hamas condemns Ben-Gvir’s threat to remove grave of resistance fighter

Hamas has condemned a push by Israel’s far-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, to destroy the grave of Ezzedine al-Qassam in the Haifa area.

Al-Qassam was a Syrian freedom fighter who took up arms against European colonisers in the Levant more than a century ago. After he was expelled to British Mandate Palestine by French colonialists, he engaged in armed resistance against Jewish and British assets who were expanding control over Palestinian land during the 1930s.

Ben-Gvir has for months been pushing to remove the freedom fighter’s grave, applying pressure on local officials to get a demolition order. On Wednesday, he led a raid by Israeli police on the area around the grave in the Muslim cemetery in the city of Nesher, and said this was “just the beginning”.

Hamas said this represented “an unprecedented level of violation of sanctities and desecration of holy sites and graves” amid the ongoing genocidal war in Gaza.

Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi said in a statement that Israel will not succeed in erasing the legacy of al-Qassam, “who will remain alive in the consciousness of our people and our nation”.

Israeli forces blow up another house in southern Lebanon

Israeli forces have detonated explosives inside a building in southern Lebanon, continuing demolition operations that have levelled hundreds of structures inside Lebanese territory, Lebanon’s National News Agency reports.

NNA said a house was blown up at dawn on the outskirts of the town of Meiss el-Jabal in the Marjayoun district, an area that was bombed extensively by Israel following the start of its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023.

The Israeli army has not yet commented.

On Monday, Israeli jets targeted Mount Safi, the town of Jbaa, the Zefta Valley, and other areas of southern Lebanon, claiming to hit Hezbollah targets.

Israel has repeatedly launched deadly air raids across Lebanon despite its ceasefire with Hezbollah, which was reached a year ago.

US senator demands answers over Israel’s 2023 attack on reporters in Lebanon

US Senator Peter Welch has said that the Trump administration continues to “stonewall” his demands for answers over Israel’s deadly October 2023 attack on a group of journalists in Lebanon.

“We have been extremely patient and we have done everything we reasonably can to obtain answers and accountability. We’ve been stonewalled – stonewalled at every single turn,” Welch told reporters during a news conference in Washington, DC.

Reuters news agency video journalist Issam Abdallah, 37, was killed in the Israeli attack on a group of reporters working in southern Lebanon on October 13, 2023, that also injured six others, including US citizen and AFP news agency journalist Dylan Collins.

Rights groups have said the journalists were deliberately targeted, which amounts to a war crime.

“It’s clear that the [Israeli army] has never had serious intentions to investigate this attack. The only thing they’ve told us is that the attack was, ‘unintentional’ – unintentional to fire at people who were in the open, very visible, who were observed being there for several hours,” Welch said.

“We expect the Israeli government to conduct an investigation that meets international standards and to hold accountable those people who did this.”

Right-wing Israeli TV host mocks harsh winter storm in Gaza

A host on Israel’s right-wing Channel 14 news broadcaster has openly celebrated the severe winter storm currently hitting Gaza.

In the news segment, participants shared hope that the flooding would “drown” the enclave where rainfall is expected to fall harder tonight and into Friday morning, and even expressed indifference to whether Palestinians would survive.

https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2025/12/11/israeli-right-wing-tv-show-mocks-gaza-drowning-in-winter-storm

UNICEF official in Gaza says ‘scale of the disaster is huge’

Jonathan Crickx, chief of communication at UNICEF Palestine, says he was at a displacement camp in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza this morning and saw many children barefoot, all their clothes and mattresses soaked.

“The water is getting everywhere because those tents are mostly makeshift and are not protecting children,” he told Al Jazeera. He said many children are sick, and after two years of relentless war, they are suffering without reprieve.

UNICEF and other agencies have seen a “slight improvement” in the amount of aid in Gaza in recent weeks, but the situation remains dire, according to Crickx.

He said UNICEF managed to distribute just 7,500 tents in Gaza, while hundreds of thousands of families remain in need. He pointed out that up to 90 percent of infrastructure in Gaza has been destroyed, adding that the UN estimates 1.5 million people are at risk.

“The scale of the disaster is huge. What we’re scared of is that there is very poor hygiene, and all that pouring rain could enable the appearance of waterborne diseases like acute diarrhoea,” he said, adding that many of the more than one million children in need have been repeatedly displaced with nothing more than the clothes on their backs.

Palestinians ‘face another layer of misery’ amid Gaza storm

The head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has warned that “Storm Byron has Gaza in its grip”.

Philippe Lazzarini said in a social media post that displaced Palestinian families face “more hardship” in makeshift shelters as heavy rainfall brings “floods, damage & additional health threats”.

For months, UNRWA has been calling on Israel to allow unimpeded humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza. That includes shelter supplies that the UN and other groups say are critical, as most of the Palestinian enclave has been destroyed in Israel’s military assault.

Israeli rights group condemns limited aid to Gaza during winter storm

B’Tselem says “two years of genocide” have left vulnerable Palestinians exposed to the worst of winter and Storm Byron, with nowhere dry to shelter.

“Yet two months into the so-called ‘ceasefire’, Israel is still blocking aid,” the prominent Israeli human rights group said.

It pointed out that more than 6,500 trucks are currently waiting to be allowed by Israel into Gaza with essential winter supplies, including tents, blankets, warm clothing and hygiene materials.

“Meanwhile, children are going barefoot and wearing summer clothes in the freezing cold,” B’Tselem said. “World leaders and the international community continue to look away and abandon the people of Gaza.”

_{Palestinian children struggle with flooding after heavy rain hits the Abu Marhil refugee camp in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, on December 11}

Hamas calls on mediators to pressure Israel to allow entry of shelter materials

Hamas blames Israel for the “tragic conditions” Palestinians in Gaza are enduring due to the ongoing blockade of materials to secure shelters.

“We call on mediators and guarantors to pressure the occupying government to allow the entry of necessary shelter materials and to open the Rafah crossing in both directions,” the Palestinian group said.

Hamas said Israel was “reneging on its commitments under the ceasefire agreement”.

One way in which Israel denies displaced Palestinians an opportunity to secure their flimsy tents, now threatened by wind and more rain, is by refusing to allow in poles, referring to them as a “dual-use” item which could be used beyond civilian needs. 

_{A displaced Palestinian child walks in a tent camp on a rainy day in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip}

Gaza’s displaced families brace for the worst as storm picks up

The storm is getting much more aggressive. Meteorologists just confirmed that the wind is moving at a speed of 40 to 50km/h (25 to 31mph), and is expected to reach as high as 80km/h (50mph).

Many displaced families set up their tents here, near the seaport area of Gaza City. Thousands of tents have been set up. Many of them are held up by thin poles, worn out ropes and plastic sheets. These shelters barely withstand normal conditions.

Many people we’ve seen over the past 30 minutes or so are leaving this area because we’re expecting the wind to pick up. They’re trying to get deeper inside Gaza City, to shelter in any of the remaining intact buildings – at least for the night.

Gaza City tents blown away as strong winds lash displacement camp

For the past 45 minutes, there’s been a nonstop downpour that’s already flooded the streets. It’s getting dark now but this displacement camp site has been badly affected by the rain. We’ve seen many families forced out of their tents as they were flooded.

We’ve also seen many of these tents blown away by the winds, and many [others] were brought down by the heavy downpour. It looks like it’s going to be a very difficult night for displaced families inside these tents that are not designed to withstand strong winds and heavy rain.

Along with every other struggle that people have been going through for the past two years, there’s another battle now with the forces of nature.

Turkiye would be ‘beneficial’ to formation of Gaza stablisation force

US Ambassador to Turkiye and Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack says Ankara should be included in the international stabilisation force (ISF) for Gaza.

According to comments he made at the Jerusalem Post’s Washington Conference, posted by Israeli journalist Amichai Stein on X, Barrack said Turkiye’s participation would strengthen the ISF, which is part of the ceasefire plan.

“Our suggestion was that since the Turks have the largest and most effective ground troop operation in the region, and since they have a dialogue with Hamas, perhaps that would be beneficial as part of the force to cool the temperature,” Barrack said.

Turkiye’s involvement in the ISF has long been rejected by Israel.

In October, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Turkish troops could not join the ISF due to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s stance against Israel.

In the same month, Netanyahu also said that no Turkish troops would be deployed to Gaza, terming it a “red line”.

With Turkey in it, it might be a little less of an International Occupation Force that Israel wants. I'm still not expecting much of it, or that it will get there at all.

Amnesty says Hamas committed crimes against humanity on October 7

Amnesty International has released a report stating that Hamas committed crimes against humanity during an attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, including the intentional targeting of civilians and sexual abuse, and the captives it took.

“These crimes were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against a civilian population. The report found that fighters were instructed to carry out attacks targeting civilians,” Amnesty said in a statement.

Hamas has denied the findings of the report and called for it to be retracted, calling it “flawed and unprofessional”.

“The report’s repetition of the lies and allegations promoted by the occupation government concerning rape, sexual violence, and the mistreatment of captives clearly demonstrates that the purpose of this report is incitement and distorting the image of the resistance,” the group said in a statement.

The only sexual 'abuse' the UN found was women being abducted, seated between two men on motorcycles. You would think that abduction would be the real crime..

Odd Amnesty comes with this now, again. This sexual violence stuff keeps coming back just to be debunked again. Someone keeps pushing that narrative while ignoring the sexual abuse of Palestinians which is well documented, has direct video evidence and is applauded in Israeli media...

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-12-11/ty-article/.premium/first-amnesty-intl-report-on-oct-7-attack-accuses-hamas-of-crimes-against-humanity/0000019b-0d73-df61-a7fb-4df7834d0000

The report notes 'documented evidence that Palestinian assailants committed sexual assault and other forms of sexual violence' both on October 7 and against hostages they held in Gaza. Former members of Amnesty's Israeli chapter claim the report on Israel was withheld over concerns about its 'perception'

There is no documented evidence... No victims have come forward. Those that have claimed to witness rapes have been debunked....

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-873910

“No independent investigation found that rape took place on the 7th of October," United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, claimed.

Anyway Amnesty has been compromised. They should be looking after Marwan Barghoutti and other Palestinian political prisoners getting tortured in Israeli jails instead of distracting the world from the fake peace plan and real crisis right now in Gaza and the West Bank.

Palestinian PM says Israeli raids in Tubas were to seize more land

Palestinian Prime Minister Mustafa has expressed support for Palestinians in Tubas, a city in the occupied West Bank that faced a wide-scale Israeli army offensive late last month.

“What [Tubas] is suffering today is not new but part of ongoing Israeli plans to seize additional areas of land and appropriate resources, depriving our people of their rights and livelihood,” Mustafa told local leaders as he visited the city, according to a report by Palestinian news agency Wafa.

“But with our collective efforts, these plans will fail just as previous attempts did.”

Israel has carried out intensified military raids across the occupied West Bank in the shadow of its genocidal war on Gaza. Israeli operations in Palestinian refugee camps in the north of the territory have forced tens of thousands of people from their homes in what rights groups say is a war crime.

In late November, the Israeli army laid siege to the Tubas governorate in the northeastern West Bank. Residents reported that Israel used Apache helicopters to fire at people as its troops carried out sweeping arrests.

Israelis pushing to re-establish illegal settlements in Gaza

Far-right Israeli settlers are pushing to re-establish illegal settlements in the Gaza Strip as Israel maintains control over half the territory, east of the so-called yellow line.

Israeli media outlets reported that dozens of Israelis “infiltrated” northern Gaza on Wednesday evening, setting up tents and planting an olive tree in an area where the so-called Nisanit settlement previously stood.

“Guys, the whole of the Land of Israel is ours, and after the terrible massacre we experienced, we need to understand this and internalise it and treat the enemy accordingly. Take territory, conquer and settle. The people of Israel are alive,” one of the Israelis said in a video shared online, according to a report by Israel Hayom.

Israel withdrew its illegal settlements from Gaza in 2005 as part of what it called a “disengagement” plan, drawing the ire of far-right Israeli politicians and the country’s settler movement.

Since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023, Israeli settlers and their political backers – including far-right members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government – have been calling for settlements to be re-established in the enclave.

At the same time, experts have warned that Israel’s total decimation of Gaza aims to make the area unlivable and push Palestinians out of their homes and communities permanently.

White House says ‘quiet planning’ under way for phase two of Gaza plan

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says the Trump administration is engaged in “quiet planning … behind the scenes” as it tries to move Israel and Hamas towards phase two of the US president’s Gaza plan.

Leavitt said Washington would make announcements “at the appropriate time” on several elements of Trump’s plan, including the international stabilisation force that will be deployed to the enclave and the so-called “board of peace”.

Expected to be chaired by Trump himself, the “board of peace” is an international body that the US government says will oversee the administration of Gaza as Hamas hands over control of the territory.

The Financial Times reported this week that the UK’s former prime minister, Tony Blair, was dropped from consideration for a role on the board amid widespread condemnation of his possible involvement.

Trump’s Gaza initiative ‘not a peace plan’

Mouin Rabbani, a political analyst and co-editor at Jadaliyya, says it’s critical to note that US President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan is not a peace plan or a diplomatic initiative.

“Rather, this is more or less a ceasefire initiative that seeks to end the most active phase of the genocide in Gaza by reducing hostilities and then transferring governance and administration of the Gaza Strip from Palestinians to a foreign body known as the Board of Peace,” he said.

Speaking during a webinar organised by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a US-based think-tank, Rabbani explained that Trump’s push to end the Israeli war emerged due to two main factors.

The first was that Israel “failed” in its effort to expel Palestinians from Gaza and “decisively defeat” Hamas and other Palestinian groups, Rabbani said, and the second was the Israeli attack on Qatar’s capital Doha in September.

“At that point, I think the Gulf states began exercising the leverage and influence that they have on the US to bring this to an end,” he said.

“That is kind of the genesis of this agreement, which I would characterise more as an Israeli initiative presented by the Americans, rather than an American initiative imposed on the Israelis – even as the Israelis were dragged unwillingly into it.”

Activist group launches petition calling on Barclays bank to cut Israel ties

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign has called on Barclays Bank to cut ties with companies that provide arms to Israel and to cease its role as the “primary dealer” of Israeli government bonds, sharing a petition that has more than 17,400 signatures thus far.

“We, the undersigned, demand that Barclays immediately ends all financial ties to companies arming Israel and ceases acting as a ‘primary dealer’ of Israeli government bonds,” the group said. “Until these actions are undertaken, we will boycott all Barclays products and services.”

Palestinians have pointed to boycotts and divestment as a form of civil society mobilisation that can place pressure on Israel, often citing the example of boycott campaigns against apartheid South Africa.

Eurovision winner Nemo to return trophy over Israel’s inclusion

Swiss singer Nemo, who won the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest, will return the winner’s trophy because Israel is being allowed to compete in next year’s competition.

In an Instagram video, Nemo held the microphone-shaped glass ornament and said, “Today, I no longer feel like this trophy belongs on my shelf”.

“Eurovision says it stands for unity, for inclusion and dignity for all people,” said Nemo, adding that Israel’s participation, given its genocidal war on Gaza, shows those ideals are at odds with organisers’ decisions.

“When entire countries withdraw, it should be clear that something is deeply wrong,” Nemo said before placing the trophy in a box they said would be sent to the Geneva headquarters of the European Broadcasting Union, which runs Eurovision.

UN reiterates call for Israel to end restrictions on Gaza aid

A spokesperson for UN chief Antonio Guterres says the UN’s humanitarian office processed more than 160 flooding alerts since this morning in Gaza amid Storm Byron. Farhan Haq said the UN needs restrictions on humanitarian operations to be lifted to be able to adequately respond to Palestinian families’ needs.

“This includes ending the ongoing ban on most international NGOs and on UNRWA, which continue to serve communities despite operating under severe restraints,” he told reporters during a briefing at UN headquarters in New York.

“To further scale up the response, we also urgently need more crossings, more routes and approval to bring a wider range of relief items into Gaza.”

‘Only a trickle’ of shelter supplies allowed into Gaza since ceasefire began

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) says the UN and international aid groups have only been able to bring 15,600 tents into Gaza since the ceasefire came into effect in October.

Those tents have gone to help approximately 88,000 Palestinians, NRC said earlier this week as Storm Byron bore down on the Palestinian enclave. But 1.29 million people across Gaza are in need of shelter.

“At least 761 displacement sites hosting around 850,000 people are at risk of flooding,” NRC said. “International aid organisations remain blocked from bringing in relief and nearly 4,000 pallets of shelter materials have been rejected.”


_{A Palestinian woman tries to clean her tent in Gaza City, December 11}

‘We have been drowned’: Palestinians in Gaza tent camps call for help

Um Salman Abu Qenas, a displaced mother in a tent camp in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, says it’s been impossible to sleep because floodwaters filled her family’s tent. “We have been drowned. I don’t have clothes to wear and we have no mattresses left,” she told The Associated Press.

Sabreen Qudeeh, also in the Khan Younis camp, said her family also woke up to water dripping from the tent’s roof with water from the street soaking their mattresses. “My little daughters were screaming,” she said.

Another displaced resident of the camp, Ahmad Abu Taha, said there was no tent that escaped the flooding. “Conditions are very bad. We have old people, displaced, and sick people inside this camp,” he said.

Palestinians cross a flooded street following heavy rain in Khan Younis, on December 11

Hamas says Gaza faces ‘true catastrophe’ as Storm Byron hits

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem says Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza continues amid a “tightening of the siege and the prevention of genuine reconstruction that would protect the residents from the effects of the storm”.

As we’ve been reporting, displaced Palestinian families living in makeshift tents across Gaza are reeling from torrential rains, flooding and strong winds brought on by Storm Byron.

In a statement shared on Telegram, Qassem called on the Gaza ceasefire deal mediators and other countries involved in the agreement to exert “real pressure” on Israel to allow Palestinians to begin the reconstruction process in the Gaza Strip.

The Hamas spokesman also urged Arab and Muslim-majority nations “to take serious and effective action to save the Gaza Strip from this catastrophic situation it is experiencing due to the destruction and successive storms”.