Main events on December 11th

• A Palestinian baby has died as freezing winter temperatures and a massive storm descended on the Gaza Strip, where she and her family were living in a makeshift tent.
• The UN and other humanitarian groups renewed calls for Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, including critical shelter supplies, as Storm Byron lashed the enclave.
• Israeli shelling in northern Gaza’s Jabalia camp killed a Palestinian woman and wounded several others, in the latest Israeli violation of last month’s ceasefire deal with Hamas.
• The White House says “quiet planning” is under way to advance to the next phase of President Trump’s Gaza plan, but no concrete details are provided on a timeline.

Israelis ‘simply don’t care’ about Palestinian suffering in Gaza

Israeli political analyst Ori Goldberg says while some Israelis will celebrate the suffering of Palestinians amid the storm in Gaza, most are simply indifferent to what’s happening in the enclave.

“There are those who actively celebrate the potential death of Palestinians,” Goldberg told Al Jazeera from Tel Aviv.

“But the great majority of Israelis are simply indifferent. As far as they’re concerned, everything that happens to Palestinians is Palestinians’ fault. Israel bears absolutely no responsibility, and they’re not sorry – they’re just indifferent.”

Goldberg added that Israel’s dehumanisation of Palestinians has been a years-long process, but it accelerated since October 2023.

“The deepest collective fantasy – that the Palestinians would simply be gone, whether they’re dead or ethnically cleansed or whatever – which is shared by pretty much all Israeli Jews crossing all political lines … has become a goal, in a way.”

Not just Israelis, the main stream media isn't reporting any of it. Only Gaza update on CNN today "Videos show 6 Israeli hostages celebrating Hanukkah in Gaza tunnel months before they were killed" 

Together with that Amnesty report turning up today there is a clear agenda to keep the Byron Gaza crisis out of the news.

Trump flaunts piracy, new Eurovision boycott, Tucker Carlson exposes Netanyahu

Donald Trump has stunned everyone by confessing to an act of maritime piracy when he told the world media that the US forces had confiscated an oil tanker from a sovereign nation, Venezuela. This came on a day when the Nobel Committee was awarding the Peace Prize to the opposition leader from Venezuela even though she supports the US invasion of her own country. Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson has launched a blistering attack on the Netanyahu regime after meeting refugees from Gaza in Qatar. Rifat Jawaid explains how Netanyahu has passed on his negative traits to those running the western countries.

Israel claims to have hit Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon

The Israeli army has announced it targeted a training compound for members of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force in southern Lebanon a short while ago. In a statement, the army added that it targeted several other alleged Hezbollah sites in the area.

Since Israel and Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire last year, Israel has routinely broken the agreement and targeted Lebanon. According to a UN report last month, at least 127 civilians, including children, have been killed in Lebanon since the ceasefire went into effect.

Israel ramps up military pressure on Hezbollah to disarm with latest air attacks

The Israeli military has carried out at least a dozen air attacks on various locations across southern Lebanon and in the east of the country.

The locations were not population centres, but hills and valleys. According to the Israeli army, they were targeting a training compound used by Hezbollah for the second time this week.

A few days ago, in the middle of the night, there was a similar wave of air raids on the same areas.

Hezbollah does not confirm or deny these claims, but the group has come under military pressure from the Israeli army, which is accusing it of trying to reestablish and rearm itself.

This pressure is being seen in Lebanon as a way to get Hezbollah to disarm. But Hezbollah is refusing to do this, instead repeating that it is pulling back from southern Lebanon in accordance with the ceasefire and allowing the Lebanese army to dismantle the group’s military infrastructure.

مشاهد للغارات الإسرائيلية العنيفة التي هزّت جنوب لبنان منذ بعض الوقت وخاصة في مرتفعات إقليم التفاح pic.twitter.com/fzcsp2vNBv

— Annahar النهار (@Annahar) December 12, 2025

Translation: Footage of the violent Israeli raids that shook southern Lebanon some time ago, especially in the highlands of the Iqlim al-Tuffah region.

Lebanon fears escalated conflict as Israel bombs further north

The ceasefire in Lebanon has been a one-sided truce, since Israel has continued near-daily attacks on the country. Israeli officials have been threatening to significantly escalate military strikes.

It is one of the reasons why Lebanon agreed to sit down for face-to-face talks with the Israelis, engaging in diplomatic talks that are seen as very sensitive in Lebanon, in the hopes that it would avoid war.

But the US ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa, made it clear a few days ago that even though Lebanon is sitting down in a room with a longtime enemy, it does not mean that the Israeli attacks will stop.

It seems now that the Israelis are attacking what they consider to be Hezbollah infrastructure further north, not just focusing on the south of the country. The fear here is that the trajectory is one of escalation in the conflict.

Israeli forces assault family, injure two men near occupied West Bank’s Ramallah

At least two men have been injured by Israeli gunfire during a raid on the Am’ari refugee camp, south of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, according to the Wafa news agency.

Local sources told Wafa that soldiers stormed the Am’ari camp this morning and opened fire on Palestinians. Two men, shot in the hand and a shoulder, were transferred to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah.

At the same time, Israeli forces attacked resident Abdul Basit Abu Aliya’s family at dawn when they stormed the village of al-Mughayyir, east of Ramallah.

According to local sources, an Israeli infantry unit went into Abdul Basit Abu Aliya’s home, severely beat all members of his family, and tampered with the contents of the house.

Israeli forces arrest wife of released prisoner west of Hebron

Israeli forces have arrested a woman from the town of Deir Samet, west of Hebron city, in the occupied West Bank, according to the Wafa news agency.

Security sources told Wafa that Israeli forces stormed the town with several military vehicles. Forces then raided the home of the released prisoner Atef Al-Awawdeh, searched it and ransacked its contents before arresting his wife.

New footage refutes Israeli car-ramming allegation, justification of Palestinian teen’s killing

New footage has emerged questioning Israel’s narrative that a Palestinian teenager hit an Israeli soldier during a car-ramming attack last week before Israeli forces shot the teenager dead.

Israeli news outlet, Haaretz, reported that the new footage that was published yesterday shows the teenager, named Ahmed Khalil Rajabi, 17, approaching soldiers as they signal for him to stop. While Rajabi’s car pauses briefly, Israeli soldiers advance towards him with one pointing their gun at his car. In an attempt to flee, Rajabi reverses and bumps one of the soldiers.

As we have reported earlier, child rights group Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) also questioned Israel’s take on events and reported yesterday, quoting his father, that his son was “visiting a patient at the hospital and was on his way home” when he was shot.

Israeli forces have confiscated the remains of Rajabi, refusing to allow his family to bury him.

A 55-year-old municipal sanitation worker, Ziad Na’im Jabara Abu Dawud, who was in the area, was also killed by Israeli fire during the incident.

The moment Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinian young men in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank. pic.twitter.com/q9ds26RpS7

— Josep Goded (@josepgoded) December 11, 2025

Wife of Palestinian ex-prisoner ‘brutally assaulted’ by Israeli forces: Media Office

We have more on the Palestinian woman who was arrested this morning in the town of Deir Samet, in the Hebron governorate in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office (ASRA) reported that Israeli authorities released Umm Wajih al-Awawdeh, who was arrested this morning from her home.

According to ASRA, she was arrested as a means of pressuring her husband, the released prisoner Atef al-Awawdeh, and was released after being “brutally assaulted” by Israeli forces.

Umm Wajih was later taken to hospital to receive treatment for the assault.

Israel approves 19 illegal settlements in occupied West Bank

Israeli news outlets are reporting that the country’s security cabinet has approved the “establishment and regulation” of 19 settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law.

That includes two settlements in the northern West Bank that were dismantled during the so-called “disengagement” of 2005. The plan “was coordinated with the US in advance”, a report by Ynet added.

Israel’s Channel 14 said the decision was driven by Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who lives in an illegal settlement himself.

ICC judges stoic in face of US sanctions over Israeli war crimes cases

Judges and prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) have been cut off by banks, credit card companies and tech giants like Amazon as a result of sanctions brought by United States President Donald Trump’s administration over war crimes investigations into Israeli and US officials.

The Associated Press news agency reported on Friday on the sweeping and punitive effect of the US sanctions on nine staff members – including six judges and the chief prosecutor – of The Hague court.

The measures, introduced in an executive order by Trump earlier this year, block their access to basic financial services and everyday activities like online shopping and email, and prevent them from entering the US, subjecting them to the same restrictions as those brought against figures like Russian President Vladimir Putin, who nevertheless was allowed to visit the US state of Alaska for a summit with Trump in August.

“Your whole world is restricted,” Canadian judge Kimberly Prost, one of the ICC officials targeted by the sanctions, told AP. Prost, who was named in the latest round of sanctions in August, told AP that she had lost access to her credit cards, had purchased e-books vanish from her device, and Amazon’s Alexa stopped responding to her.

“It’s the uncertainty,” she said. “They are small annoyances, but they accumulate.”

Prost had been sanctioned for voting to allow the court’s investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Afghanistan, including by US soldiers and intelligence operatives. “I’ve worked all my life in criminal justice, and now I’m on a list with those implicated in terrorism and organised crime,” she said.

Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza, a sanctioned Peruvian judge, said the US travel sanctions, which also extended to family members, meant her daughters could no longer attend conferences in the US. The sanctions threaten businesses and individuals with substantial US fines and prison time if they provide sanctioned people with “financial, material, or technological support”, driving them to withdraw services to the targeted individuals.

“You’re never quite sure when your card is not working somewhere, whether this is just a glitch or whether this is the sanction,” deputy prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan told the AP.

Reports of threats over warrants

The sanctions are reportedly only one of the measures that have been levelled against the court in an attempt to exert pressure over the arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant.

In July, the Middle East Eye (MEE) website reported that the court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, was warned that he and the ICC would be “destroyed” if the warrants were not withdrawn.

The threat reportedly came from Nicholas Kaufman, a British-Israeli defence lawyer at the court linked to a Netanyahu adviser. Khan said the Israeli leader’s legal adviser told him he was “authorised” to make Khan a proposal that would allow the prosecutor to “climb down the tree”, the news website reported.

The site reported in August that Khan had also been privately warned by then-British Foreign Secretary David Cameron in April the previous year that the UK would defund and withdraw from the ICC if it issued the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant, while in May 2024, US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham also “threatened” Khan with sanctions if he applied for the warrants.

In May, Khan’s office announced he had taken a leave of absence pending the conclusion of a UN-led investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against him, with two deputy prosecutors assuming his responsibilities. His lawyers said he rejected all claims of wrongdoing and had only stepped aside temporarily due to intense media scrutiny.

Storm Byron kills nine people in Gaza as rainfall continues: Report

Storm Byron, which is currently hitting Gaza, has so far killed at least nine people and injured a number of others due to flooding and building collapse, according to the Wafa news agency.

Local sources told Wafa that five Palestinians died overnight after a house sheltering displaced people in the Bir an-Naaja area in the North Gaza governorate collapsed.

At dawn, two people died after a large wall collapsed onto the tents of those displaced in the Remal neighbourhood of western Gaza City. Yesterday, one person died as a result of a wall collapse in the Shati camp, and a newborn died due to the cold temperatures in the al-Mawasi area near Khan Younis.


_{A displaced Palestinian child walks in a tent camp on a rainy day in Khan Younis, the southern Gaza Strip, on December 11}

Storm death toll reaches 10 after another baby dies due to cold

This morning, another baby was announced and confirmed dead in the Shati refugee camp. This baby lost his life after he froze to death, and this brings the death toll from this storm to 10. 

A medical source in Gaza has confirmed the death of another child due to the cold weather, meaning at least two children have died today and one more yesterday. A source at al-Shifa Hospital told Al Jazeera Arabic that nine-year-old Hadeel al-Masri died in a shelter for displaced people west of Gaza City. Baby Taim al-Khawaja also passed away in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City.

The grandfather of the baby boy told Al Jazeera that his family had been sheltering in a house with no roof after their house was bombed during an Israeli attack. “Yesterday, we were surprised to hear his mother screaming, saying, ‘My son is blue!’ so we carried the boy and went to al-Rantisi Hospital,” the grandfather explained. “His temperature remained between 33 and 34 degrees, which has affected all his organs. His brain began to deteriorate, and that was the end of it,” he added.

This shows how harsh this storm has been on the Gaza Strip and for Palestinians. We’re talking about at least 10 Palestinians who died in the past 24 hours. We’re also talking about 10 houses that collapsed in the past 24 hours, and more houses are threatening to collapse at any minute while Palestinians are actually sheltering inside those houses.

Gaza’s civil defence continues rescue operations across enclave amid storm

Gaza’s civil defence says teams managed to retrieve a body and two injured children from the rubble of a collapsed house in the Bir an-Naaja area of northern Gaza, with work continuing to extract others.

The rescue teams also evacuated residents of the Darby family house after the building’s entrance collapsed in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City.

Moreover, a rescue team from Deir el-Balah governorate recovered a Red Crescent vehicle that had become stuck in a water hole near al-Suwarah cemetery in the Nuseirat camp.

But as heavy rainfall continues to fall on Gaza, Gaza’s civil defence warned residents yesterday who are living in houses that have been damaged by Israeli attacks that it was unsafe to stay in them during the storm.


_{Displaced Palestinians shelter in a tent at a camp in Gaza City, on December 11}

Storm turns thousands of makeshift shelters in Gaza into traps

The storm has hit Gaza, turning thousands of makeshift shelters into traps for Palestinian families who have been repeatedly displaced during the war.

I’m at a displacement site in al-Mawasi in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, with officials warning that there could be floods, heavy rain and hail, continuing through today. It is expected to threaten some 850,000 people, including many children, sheltering in 761 sites.

Here, tents have been destroyed due to the heavy rain and wind, leaving families facing ruined makeshift shelters.

Hundreds of thousands of people live on the coastline in al-Mawasi and are at constant risk. In some areas, parts of the ground near the shore collapsed, threatening tents.

Families have been living in a state of displacement for over two years of Israeli attacks.


_{Palestinians walk through rubble amid stormy weather in Gaza City, on Thursday, December 11}

‘Political choice’ to block temporary shelter equipment from entering Gaza: UNRWA

Weather conditions are affecting families in Gaza terribly, says Jonathan Fowler, a spokesperson for the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), which has teams working on the ground.

“People who have nothing need everything and are suddenly confronted by this disastrous storm,” he told Al Jazeera from Jordan’s Amman.

He said the population has been displaced multiple times from one flimsy shelter to the next, and the storm is compounding the situation while Israel is not allowing enough supplies in.

“We as UNRWA remain banned by the Israeli authorities from bringing anything into Gaza. Yet we have shelter supplies for more than a million people, sitting outside the Gaza Strip that we can bring in immediately if we’re allowed to. It is a political choice to deny us the possibility of bringing that aid in,” Fowler said.

But he added that colleagues on the ground are using the resources they have and those brought in by partner organisations to assist the population, including by pumping away sewage, as the infrastructure has been destroyed by Israel.

“There are lakes of untreated sewage waters all over the place,” he said.

At least 12 buildings have collapsed in Gaza since storm onset: Ministry

The Ministry of Interior and National Security in Gaza says operating teams have received more than 4,300 distress calls from people across the enclave since the onset of the storm.

Over the past few hours, at least 12 incidents were recorded of previously shelled buildings collapsing as a result of the strong wind and heavy rains, it said in a statement.

The ministry said its police forces are helping civil defence and municipal teams conduct rescue operations despite limited resources as several people remain missing and are believed to be under the rubble.

“What is happening now is a wakeup call for everyone to face up to their responsibilities,” the statement said, calling on the international community to intervene in order for Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.

#شاهد| انهيار منزل على ساكنيه في قطاع غزة نتيجة المنخفض الجوي، وطواقم الدفاع المدني تعمل على انتشال الجثامين من تحت الأنقاض. pic.twitter.com/46F6q95Ytr

— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) December 12, 2025

Translation: A house collapsed on its residents in the Gaza Strip as a result of the storm, and civil defence teams are working to recover bodies from under the rubble.

Gaza’s storm-related deaths rise again

The death toll from Storm Byron has increased to 12 as homes collapse under strong winds and flooding, Gaza’s Government Media Office announced.

According to the media office, the storm has begun to materialise on the ground in the enclave, leaving Gaza’s one and a half million displaced people in “direct confrontation with the danger of drowning and collapses”.

“The Gaza Strip has witnessed dangerous developments, including: 12 casualties, including martyrs and missing people, as a result of the storm’s impact and the collapse of bombed buildings across all governorates of the Gaza Strip,” the statement read.

“The collapse of at least 13 homes, most recently in the al-Karama and Sheikh Radwan neighbourhoods of Gaza City, with civil defence teams still responding to hundreds of calls for help; the flooding and destruction of more than 27,000 tents belonging to displaced people, which were either inundated, swept away by floods, or torn down by strong winds,” it added.

The media office reiterated that Israel is continuing to block shelter materials, mobile homes and 300,000 tents from going into Gaza.

_{A displaced Palestinian child carries belongings in a flooded tent camp on a rainy day in Nuseirat, central Gaza}


Gaza City resident describes conditions amid storm

In the camps of Gaza City, the scenes of vulnerability are everywhere. Most tents are constructed from aid tarpaulins, pieces of plastic salvaged from rubble and blankets tied to recycled wooden poles. Many sag visibly in the middle; others are erected inadequately, so much so that they quiver and flap violently under the slightest breeze.

“When the wind starts, we all hold the poles to keep the tent from falling,” said Hani Ziara, a father sheltering in western Gaza City after his home was destroyed months ago.

His tent was flooded last night in the heavy rain, and his children had to stay outside in the cold. Hani wonders painfully what else he can do to protect his children from the rain and strong winds.


_{Displaced Palestinians stand near accumulated rainwater as they shelter in a flooded tent camp on a rainy day in Nuseirat, central Gaza}

Gaza death toll linked to Storm Byron rises to 14

The Palestinian Ministry of Interior and National Security says at least 14 people – including women and children – have died in Gaza since Wednesday due to Storm Byron. The deaths are linked to the storm, which has unleashed heavy rainfall and winds on the Palestinian enclave, as well as the collapse of homes, the ministry said in a statement.

Gaza rescuers search rubble of home that collapsed due to storm


<sub>A Palestinian Civil Defence member participates in search and rescue operations in a house that collapsed amid heavy rains in Beit Lahyia, in northern Gaza, December 12


Storm Byron has brought heavy rainfall and fierce winds to Gaza</sub>

Nearly 795,000 Palestinians in Gaza at heightened risk from storm: UN

The UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) has warned that continued rainfall in Gaza is worsening conditions for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who are already living in dire conditions in flooded displacement camps.

IOM said the shelter items it dispatched “cannot withstand flooding”.

“Many displacement sites sit on low, debris-filled land with inadequate drainage and waste management, leaving families at heightened risk of disease outbreaks and other public health hazards as the flooding spreads,” the agency said.

IOM Director General Amy Pope also said unimpeded deliveries of shelter supplies and other aid are necessary to respond to the crisis.

“People in Gaza have lived through loss and fear for far too long,” Pope said in a statement.

“Now, after this storm made landfall yesterday, families are trying to protect their children with whatever they have. They deserve more than this uncertainty. They deserve safety. Immediate and unhindered access is essential so tools and supplies can reach those who are doing everything they can to hold their lives together in these extremely difficult conditions.”

_{Palestinians cross a flooded street following heavy rain in Khan Younis, southern Gaza}

Foreign ministers express support for UNRWA, denounce Israeli raid

A group of foreign ministers from the Middle East and Asia have reaffirmed their support for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, stressing that UNRWA plays an “essential role” in delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza.

“The Ministers stress that UNRWA’s role is irreplaceable. No other entity possesses the infrastructure, expertise, and field presence required to meet the needs of Palestinian refugees or to ensure continuity of services at the necessary scale,” foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkiye and Qatar wrote in the statement.

The ministers also condemned Israel’s raid of UNRWA’s headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem this week as an “unacceptable escalation” that constitutes “a flagrant violation of international law and the inviolability of UN premises”.

#Statement | The Foreign Ministers of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, UAE, Indonesia, Pakistan, Türkiye, and Qatar reaffirm the indispensable role of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in safeguarding the rights and well-being… pic.twitter.com/Yo65XuaVhj

— Foreign Ministry 🇸🇦 (@KSAmofaEN) December 12, 2025