Just stop sending weapons to Israel, and strict sanctions until they end the apartheid and occupation. The west needs to stop supporting settler colonialism and confront their own past.


Main points on December 22nd

Hamas provides signs of life for some captives: Report

The Times of Israel, citing an unnamed Israeli official, says Hamas has provided signs of life for several captives held in Gaza as negotiations for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal continues.

The official said Israel knows the whereabouts of most of the captives, but declined to say if Hamas had provided a full list of those who are alive. The official also said Israel would not accept an end to the war as part of a deal, but is open to negotiating a “prolonged ceasefire”.

As of September 1, about 101 captives were believed to still be in Gaza, according to Israeli military. But in early December, Hamas said that 33 of them had been killed.

‘Not at any cost’: Israel’s Smotrich doubles down on opposition to Gaza deal

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says the country needs a “big deal that does not include surrender to Hamas” in Gaza.

“I believe that surrender deals that harm the great war achievements, harm us,” the leader of the ultranationalist Religious Zionist Party told Israeli radio station 103fm about the war on Gaza.

“Releasing terrorists with blood-stained hands is actually rebuilding Hamas leadership,” he said, in reference to Palestinian prisoners who could be released as part of a captive exchange deal.

Along with far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Smotrich has been one of the staunchest opponents of a Gaza ceasefire agreement.

Israeli Democrats Party leader Yair Golan has also agreed that “we should not accept a small deal” but said the state should not give up on retrieving all the captives held in Gaza.

“We should go for a deal where everyone is released and build an alternative to Hamas,” he was quoted as saying by Israeli Army Radio.

Kamal Adwan Hospital generator out of service, fuel tank hit by Israel

Dr Hussam Abu Safia, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, says Israeli tanks and bulldozers yesterday abruptly approached the western gate of the besieged facility under heavy gunfire.

Bullets penetrated the intensive care unit, the maternity department, and the specialised surgery department, he said in a statement released today, saying patients had been evacuated to the hospital corridors, but some bullets hit inside the departments, creating fear and chaos.

“Additionally, one of the generators was targeted and completely put out of service due to a fire. There were also attempts to hit the fuel tank, but fortunately, it did not explode.”

He added: “Currently, we have 91 hospitalised patients, including adults, children, and women. We are still providing the minimum level of service.”

Abu Safia renewed his call on the international community for protection and humanitarian assistance, saying Kamal Adwan Hospital has received “only a very small amount of aid” amid lingering Israeli threats.

_{A fire burns as seen through a window from Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya on December 18}

Israeli army commits ‘horrific, brutal crimes’ in Nuseirat: Gaza Media Office

In a statement on Telegram, the Government Media Office in Gaza says the Israeli military stormed “the new camp” in Nuseirat with more than 17 military vehicles, dozens of soldiers and jets.

It added that the army killed and wounded more than 50 people – all civilians, including children and women – in the camp in central Gaza, while also demolishing more than 20 housing units.

“We condemn in the strongest terms the barbaric aggression committed by the ‘Israeli’ occupation army against the new camp area in Nuseirat,” it said, calling the military’s actions a “crime of genocide”.

Number of people killed in Israel’s war on Gaza rises to 45,317

The number of people killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since the start of the war has risen to 45,317, with 107,713 others wounded, according to the latest daily update by the Health Ministry in the besieged and bombarded territory.

It said 58 people were killed and 86 wounded during the last 24-hour reporting period.

Many victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, with ambulances and Civil Defence crews unable to reach them, the ministry said.

Only 12 aid trucks have reached North Gaza since October, Oxfam says

The advocacy group says Israeli authorities gave permission for 34 aid trucks to enter the besieged North Gaza governorate in the past two and a half months, but only 12 were able to distribute food and water to trapped people in the area.

“Of the meagre 34 trucks of food and water given permission to enter the North Gaza Governorate over the last 2.5 months, deliberate delays and systematic obstructions by the Israeli military meant that just twelve managed to distribute aid to starving Palestinian civilians,” Oxfam said in a statement on Sunday.

“For three of these, once the food and water had been delivered to the school where people were sheltering, it was then cleared and shelled within hours,” the group added.

Israel has been blockading and laying siege to North Gaza – which includes Beit Hanoon, Beit Lahiya and Jabalia – since October 5, trapping tens of thousands of people and cutting off their access to food, water and medicine.

Aid entry for entire Gaza (Though many don't make it to their destination in Gaza)

Out of the 500 daily trucks before Oct 7 or 15,000 a month.

Gaza situation ‘nothing short of an apocalyptic nightmare’

Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam policy lead in the occupied Palestinian territory, told Al Jazeera the figure demonstrates how the resources going in are just a drop in the ocean.

“This is not aid, this is cruelty. And when those supplies do get in, they are followed by shelling and destruction of the very places people are sheltering,” she said from Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank. “People are now scared to go out and get the aid on the trucks because there’s been follow-ups of air strikes after trucks were delivered.”

Khalidi described the situation in Gaza as “nothing short of an apocalyptic nightmare”. She said the Israeli military has created a vacuum in the enclave and an environment where looting and violence happen due to the desperation of the population.

Palestinians asking hungry children in Gaza not to play so they won’t feel dizzy

Khalidi said Israel, an occupying power, has obligations that include protecting and providing for the occupied Palestinian people. “It’s not enough for you to allow aid to be dropped at the gates of the Gaza prison and not make sure that the aid gets to the communities safely. It is Israel’s obligation to make sure that all the crossings are open and safe for passage,” she said.

“After 14 months of relentless bombardment and starvation of the entire population, some people are acting out of desperation and there’s absolute chaos in Gaza right now.”

Khalidi said families are rummaging through rubbish for scraps of food and boiling leaves in order to survive. She added that parents skip days of meals so that their children can eat, stressing that the entire Gaza Strip faces acute malnutrition and is on the brink of starvation, and that there are pockets of famine, especially in areas in the north.

“Some people are asking their kids not to play, because they will get dizzy since they’re not eating and drinking enough,” Khalidi said. “Imagine asking your five-year-old not to play while already there’s all this death and destruction around and quadcopters and drones are flying above.”

‘Do you know what freezing means?’

Without access to electricity or gas, displaced families living in makeshift camps in Gaza have to endure icy temperatures that could be life-threatening.

“We go inside our tents after sunset and don’t go out because it is very cold and it gets colder by midnight,” said Omar Shabet, a displaced Palestinian sheltering in a camp in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. “My seven-year-old daughter almost cries at night because of how cold she is,” added Shabet, who, like many others, was forced to leave his home in Gaza City many months ago.

The UN says nearly a million people urgently need winter supplies, but getting aid into Gaza has proved nearly impossible as the Israeli military has blocked almost all humanitarian assistance from entering the Strip. As a result, 22,000 tents are stuck in Jordan and hundreds of thousands of blankets in Egypt. As night falls, people are too scared to light fires fearing it could make them a target for Israeli air raids.

“No proper clothes, no socks, nothing. We never expected to live such a life. My house was so good in the north,” said another displaced Palestinian, Reda Abu Zarada, struggling to hold back tears. “We wake up in the morning freezing – do you know what freezing means? We are shivering from the cold.”

Israeli forces raid towns, villages across West Bank

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that a Palestinian has been wounded after Israeli forces opened fire during a raid on the Qalandiya camp in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli soldiers also launched a campaign of arrests in the town of Tuqu, near Bethlehem, and fired flares during a raid on the Kafr Aqab neighbourhood, north of Jerusalem, according to AJA.

Israeli raids were also reported in the following areas:

Israeli settlers establish illegal outposts in West Bank’s Area B for first time since Oslo Accords

Peace Now, an Israeli rights group, says it has documented the establishment of seven settler outposts “deep within” the Palestinian-controlled Area B of the occupied West Bank for the first time since the Oslo Accords of the 1990s.

Area B was designated as an area under full Palestinian civil control under the Oslo Accords, which represented the first direct Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement. For years, successive Israeli governments had refrained from establishing settlements or outposts there, according to Peace Now.

But in 2024, settlers established five outposts near Bethlehem and two others near Ramallah, the Israeli group said. In the meantime, enforcement against outposts in Area C, which is controlled by Israel, “has all but ceased”, it said.

These settlements are considered illegal under international law.

“After seizing control of Area C and systematically displacing Palestinians through house demolitions and settler violence, settlers have now set their sights on Area B,” the group said.

“The Israeli government’s annexation plans are not limited to Area C. By enabling settlers to establish outposts deep in Area B, the government blatantly violates another critical element of the Oslo Accords. If we do not act today, we will find ourselves returning to full military rule across the entire West Bank,” it added.

Israeli forces wound 3, arrest dozens in raids on West Bank

Al Jazeera Arabic is reporting that the number of people injured from Israeli gunfire in the ongoing raid on the Qalandiya camp has now risen to three.

AJA also reported that Israeli forces have launched a “large-scale arrest campaign” in Fawwar refugee camp, south of the city of Hebron, and are conducting field investigations in its main square.

The Shehab news agency posted pictures of the campaign, alleging that the Israeli forces had “abused dozens of detainees” during their large-scale raid.

The Wafa news agency meanwhile reported that Israeli forces had arrested at least 25 Palestinians from the town of Tuqu, east of Bethlehem.

Israeli soldiers hold dozens of detainees at Hebron stadium

Activists and local Palestinian platforms on social media have released footage, verified by Al Jazeera, showing Israeli forces detaining dozens of Palestinians in a stadium at Fawwar camp, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.

The scenes show dozens of Palestinians standing in the stadium surrounded by Israeli soldiers. According to local platforms, the Israeli forces turned the youth club of the camp into a field investigation centre.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said nearly 100 people were held at the stadium in what was the third raid on the camp within 24 hours, and that Israeli forces closed all entrances and exits of the camp and prohibited movement inside.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DD6MLYmNNIw

The ‘Line of Dead Bodies’ in Gaza

Starts with history about the My Lai massacre and how the same 'policy' is happening at the Netzarim Corridor today.

After Cyprus and Sri Lanka, IDF soldier ordered to flee Thailand fearing arrest | Janta Ka Reporter

There are reports that the IDF bosses have ordered their soldiers in recents days to flee several countries including Sri Lanka and Thailand fearing arrest. This was after the International Criminal Court ordered arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant.

"Beginning of End" For Zionism - Israeli Historian w/. Ilan Pappé