Powerful pro-Israeli US Congresswoman quits politics as Trump withdraws support

The news of US Congresswoman Elise Stefanik bowing out of politics following the lack of endorsement from Donald Trump has come as a good news for those who stood in solidarity with people of Gaza. Rifat Jawaid looks at Stefanik’s rise and spectacular fall in US politics.


First they came for....

'The whole of Christianity is under attack here’

In the heart of the old city of Jerusalem, Peter Oborne sits in a makeshift shelter surrounded by rubble and barricades set up to protect one of the oldest Christian community in the world. Speaking to the Armenian community in Israel, Oborne digs into the claims made by Israeli prime minster Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel is a great protector of Christianity.

Bondi Beach Survivor, Israeli Arsen Ostrovsky, Is NOT Telling The Whole Story..

Peter Hager delves into the Bondi Beach shooting and its Israeli survivor, Arsen Ostrovsky, may not be telling the whole story.

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/from-israel-to-bondi-beach-when-terror-reaches-a-friend/

2025 in Gaza: 12 months, 12 pictures


Displaced Palestinians trek towards Gaza City on January 27, 2025, after Israel's decision to restore access to the northern part of the enclave. A procession of people moved northwards along Gaza's coastline throughout the day, their possessions packed in plastic bags and converted flour sacks.



Tents are scattered among the rubble of Israel's air and ground offensive in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip on February 17

People come together for a communal iftar meal to break their fast on the second day of Ramadan in Gaza City's Tal al-Hawa district on March 2



Relatives grieve over the bodies of several Abu Mahdi family members killed in an Israeli air strike during their funeral at the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya on April 28

Palestinians struggle to get food at a community kitchen in Jabalia in northern Gaza on May 19



A Palestinian man holds a child rescued from the rubble of the Shaheen family home after an Israeli strike in the as-Saftawi neighbourhood, west of Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on June 9



Displaced Palestinian Samah Matar sits beside her malnourished son Youssef, who suffers from cerebral palsy, on July 24, 2025, at a school serving as their shelter as Gaza undergoes a hunger crisis.

Starvation-related deaths are increasing as restrictions and military operations exacerbate a critical food shortage throughout Gaza. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, at least 475 people, including 165 children, have died from malnutrition.



Palestinians pray over the bodies of journalists, including Al Jazeera correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, who were killed in an Israeli air strike, during their funeral outside Gaza City's al-Shifa Hospital on August 11

This has become the deadliest conflict for journalists on record with more than 300 journalists and media workers killed in Gaza since the war began in October 2023, including Al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif.

Palestinians run for cover during an Israeli air strike on a high-rise building in Gaza City on September 5



Palestinians move past debris in the aftermath of an Israeli withdrawal from Khan Younis in southern Gaza on October 10, 2025, the day a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect.



Health and civilian workers perform a mass burial for Palestinians at a cemetery in Khan Younis on November 10, 2025. According to Gaza's Health Ministry, they received the bodies of 15 Palestinian prisoners that day as part of a ceasefire exchange.



Lamia Abdel Dayem, 30, examines her flooded tent in a camp for displaced Palestinians after heavy rainfall in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on December 12th

Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to seek refuge in temporary shelters and overcrowded camps. Flooding this month has further deteriorated conditions throughout the already devastated region.

Main events on December 24th

• At least one Palestinian was killed and six, including a child, were wounded in Israeli attacks across Gaza on Wednesday.
• According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, Israeli forces have killed more than ‌400 people in the battered enclave since the start of the ceasefire in October.
• Gaza’s Government Media Office said Israel committed “serious and systematic violations” of the truce, noting that Israeli forces had breached the ceasefire 875 times since it came into force.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said an Israeli delegation met officials from mediating countries in Cairo, Egypt, on Wednesday to discuss efforts to return the remains of the last Israeli captive, police officer Ran Gvili, from Gaza.
• Fourteen countries, including the UK, Canada, Denmark and France, have condemned Israel’s approval of 19 new ⁠settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying ​the move was illegal and jeopardised the Gaza ceasefire and “long-term peace and security across the region”.

Palestinian charity single ‘Lullaby’ tops UK Christmas charts, raising funds for Gaza

A charity single has topped the UK Christmas charts in an attempt to raise funds for families in Gaza. Filmed in the Strip and occupied East Jerusalem, “Lullaby” reimagines a traditional resistance song.

Within the week, it’s become the most downloaded song.

Gaza’s Christian community marks subdued Christmas amid sound of bombs, drones

Christmas morning here is already marked by the deep mechanical hum of drones, the roar of armoured vehicles. This is the eastern part of Gaza, where the sounds of bombardment have carried through the night and into the early hours of this morning.

For the Christian community here, it’s not just this morning but also last night – even the early evening hours yesterday – when the reality was felt.

As celebrations were meant to begin, particularly at the remaining churches in Gaza, mainly the Holy Family Catholic Church, there was no true sense of celebration. The ongoing attacks by the Israeli military and the overall security situation have made it extremely difficult for families to mark the holiday.

Many churches across Gaza either scaled back or cancelled Christmas activities altogether, replacing them with small, private gatherings and prayers within the church walls.

Israeli forces target southern, eastern Lebanon

The Israeli army says its forces have carried out an attack in the Ansariyah municipality of southern Lebanon.

Meanwhile, an Israeli drone hit a car in the vicinity of the village of Hoch al-Sayyed Ali in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, according to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.

Israel has killed more than 300 people in Lebanon since last year’s November 27 ceasefire, including about 127 civilians, according to the UN.

Israeli forces remain deployed in five areas of southern Lebanon and continue near-daily air raids, which Israel claims target fighters from the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and its infrastructure.

More than 64,000 people, mostly from southern Lebanon, remain displaced, according to the UN.

Two killed in Israeli attack on eastern Lebanon

As we reported earlier, an Israeli drone hit a car in the vicinity of the village of Hoch al-Sayyed Ali in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley area, according to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.

Lebanon’s National News Agency is now reporting that two people were killed in the attack.

Israeli forces launch new raids in western Syria: Report

Israeli forces have conducted new raids into several Syrian towns in the southwestern province of Quneitra, local media is reporting.

The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said that an Israeli patrol consisting of two Hummer vehicles moved out from Tal Ahmar in the southern Quneitra countryside, travelled along the road towards Kudna and Ain Zivan before reaching Suwayseh.

Israeli forces were deployed inside Suwayseh, where they stopped and searched civilians and disrupted movement, the outlet added.

At least one Palestinian shot dead by Israeli forces in northern Gaza

Israeli forces have shot at Palestinians in northern Gaza’s Jabalia area in and around their deployment areas, killing at least one person and injuring several others.

That’s according to the enclave’s Ambulance and Emergency Services, quoted by our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.

_{Displaced Palestinian Salah al-Mabhouh, 40, sits by a fire with his son, Abdul-Razzaq, eight, beside their tent in the Bureij camp, the central Gaza Strip, on December 24}

Gaza’s al-Awda Hospital suspends most services due to severe fuel shortage amid Israeli blockade

Raafat al-Majdalawi, the head of the al-Awda health and community association, says the hospital in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp has been forced to partly shut down after months of struggling to manage meagre fuel supplies.

He told our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic that the suspension affects a comprehensive range of life-saving care, including general and specialised surgery, emergency response and maternity wards.

Since the start of its genocidal war on Gaza, Israel has maintained a tight stranglehold on the entry of fuel, food and medicine into the enclave.

International legal experts and human rights groups have argued that this blockade, combined with the destruction of medical infrastructure, constitutes a deliberate effort to inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the population.

Al-Majdalawi detailed the stark insufficiency of the supplies that do trickle through. While the Nuseirat facility requires a daily minimum of 2,600 litres (686 gallons) of diesel to function, it receives, at best, only 1,000 litres (264 gallons).

_{An interior view of al-Awda Hospital, which has suspended medical services due to running out of fuel needed to operate its electric generators in the Nuseirat refugee camp, Deir el-Balah, Gaza}

‘We used to celebrate together’: Gaza Christians mourn amid loss

For the first time in two years, Christmas services at the Holy Family Church – Gaza’s only Catholic church – are taking place without the sounds of shelling and gunfire. For many, the day is marked by grief as much as faith.

Nouzod Terzi, a displaced Palestinian Christian, said she cannot bring herself to celebrate. Her daughter was killed in an Israeli air attack a year ago.

“We used to celebrate together – we would decorate the Christmas tree at home, bake cakes together, visit loved ones, and attend the celebrations at church,” she told Al Jazeera.

“Now, I’m going through a very difficult time.”

The church sustained damage during months of Israeli bombardment but continues to serve as a shelter for families displaced by the war.

Israel slams 14 countries’ condemnation of new illegal Israeli settlements

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has condemned the international backlash to its approval of new illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying the criticism was “discriminatory against Jews”.

“The cabinet decision to establish 11 new settlements and to formalise eight additional settlements is intended, among other things, to help address the security threats Israel is facing,” he claimed.

Following the announcement of the new settlements on Sunday, 14 countries, including Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Canada, issued a statement calling on Israel to reverse its decision, as well as to stop the expansion of existing settlements.

They also reaffirmed their “unwavering commitment to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace based on the two-state solution … where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side-by-side in peace and security”.

It's anti-semitic to criticize colonialism, land theft and ethnic cleansing...

Palestinian prisoners facing ‘torture, starvation’ in Israeli prisons: Media Office

In Israeli prisons, more than 9,300 Palestinian prisoners and detainees are facing “torture, starvation, medical neglect, and slow executions”, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office (ASRA).

Since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023, Palestinians in prison have experienced an “unprecedented escalation in torture and repression”, the prisoner advocacy group stated.

“Daily systematic repression includes: Severe beatings, tear gas, electric shocks, rubber bullets, police dogs, and night raids. Female prisoners in Damon prison are subjected to: Raids, beatings, restraints, blindfolding, exposure to the cold, a severe shortage of blankets and clothing, denial of sanitary pads, and starvation,” it explained.

Other forms of repression include solitary confinement, medical neglect and the denial of treatment, starvation and overcrowding.

“Child prisoners (approximately 350): Subjected to beatings, starvation, illness, and denial of family visits,” it said.

According to the advocacy group, violations have been documented in the Israeli prisons of Ofer, Negev, Megiddo, Ramla, Shatta, Gilboa, Ganot, Damon, and the Sde Teiman and Gilad detention camps.

Israel denies medication to imprisoned Palestinian journalist: Prisoners’ Media Office

Palestinian journalist Mo’men al-Halabi from Gaza is currently facing harsh detention conditions in southern Israel’s Ramon prison.

According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office (ASRA), al-Halabi, who suffers from blood clots in his left leg, is being denied his medication and a lack of medical follow-up by Israeli guards, leading to a “deterioration in his condition and difficulty moving”.

Alongside the medical neglect, he is also subjected to malnutrition and is suffering from the cold temperatures, possessing only two blankets and one jacket.

“What he is enduring is part of a systematic policy targeting journalists and freedom of expression. We hold the occupation fully responsible for his life and demand urgent human rights and media intervention to ensure his treatment and rights,” ASRA said in a statement.

What’s going on in the occupied West Bank?

Since dawn, Israeli forces have arrested Palestinians across the occupied West Bank after storming and raiding homes, according to the Wafa news agency.

Those arrested include:

Eight-month-old Palestinian baby injured in Israeli settler attack near Hebron

An Israeli settler attack injured an eight-month-old Palestinian girl after homes in the town of Sa’ir, northeast of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank were targeted late last night.

According to the Wafa news agency, a group of armed settlers from the illegal colony of Asfar and the newly established outpost in the Jorat al-Khail area attacked Palestinian properties with stones.

The attack left infant, Mayar Shalalda, with injuries to her face and head. She was later taken to a hospital, where her condition was described as moderate.

Last month, a group of settlers attacked residents in the Wadi Sa’ir area, injuring several people and setting fire to a house and two vehicles.

Israeli troops demolish house south of Bethlehem

Israeli forces began demolishing a house in the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank.

Local sources told the Wafa news agency that soldiers began demolishing a two-storey house in the Umm Rukba area in the south, belonging to Palestinian Abdullah Saleh Abdul Salam Salah.

Troops, who were accompanied by bulldozers, stormed the Umm Rukba area, closing it off and preventing the movement of citizens, in preparation for demolishing the house.

At least 568 Israeli settlers storm Al-Aqsa Mosque compound

Israeli settlers, under the protection of Israeli police and soldiers, have stormed the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem.

Local sources have told the Wafa news agency that 568 settlers stormed the Muslim holy site in groups, carried out provocative tours in its courtyards and performed Talmudic rituals.

Christmas celebrations resume in Bethlehem

Manger Square and the narrow alleyways that surround it filled with the sound of drums and brass as Bethlehem’s scout troupes marched through in their pristine uniforms.

They sang Christmas carols and played traditional Palestinian music, combining a celebration of Christmas with their own national identity.

Amid Wednesday’s celebrations, held on Christmas Eve, there was a certain poignancy – this is the first time in two years that such festive scenes have returned to the city, believed to be the birthplace of Jesus.

Among those at the celebrations was Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, the highest-ranking Catholic official in Palestine and the wider region.

“Here in Bethlehem, from where I send the Christmas message not only to Bethlehem but to the entire world, I have noticed the presence of light,” Pizzaballa said. “And this is not just the light of the sun, but the light of your beautiful faces.

“We decided to be light, and the light of Bethlehem is the light of the world,” he added. “Today, we bring you peace, prayers, and hearts.”

_{Palestinians play bagpipes as they celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem’s Manger Square}

Christmas Mass in Israeli-occupied Bethlehem


_{Acting Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa leads a Christmas Midnight Mass at Saint Catherine’s Church in the Church of the Nativity, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, on December 24}