Top Israeli military lawyer raises concern over civilian casualties in Gaza: Report

Israel’s Army Radio is reporting that a top military lawyer has sent a “strong” letter to Major-General Yaron Finkelman, who commands the country’s Southern Command, warning that his forces are not adequately assessing the size of the civilian population in areas they are attacking and operating in the Gaza Strip.

Doron Kadosh, the journalist behind the Army Radio report, said the letter by Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi raised concerns that this failure “has implications for both the scope of humanitarian aid entering a particular area, and also for air force strikes in that area [due to calculations of ‘collateral damage’ – harm to uninvolved civilians]”.

Kadosh did not state when Tomer-Yerushalmi sent her letter.

He said the lawyer cited how the military – which has been laying siege to North Gaza since October 6 – initially assessed that only 3,000 civilians were living in the northern town of Beit Lahiya. But the figure turned out to be much higher as it was found later that about 14,000 people had been displaced from the town.

Kadosh said the letter prompted an internal inquiry, but the probe found that “there were no deficiencies in the scope of humanitarian aid that entered Beit Lahiya, and that the firing and attacks in the area did not cause any unusual harm to uninvolved people.”

Those findings contradict reports from the UN and other aid agencies operating in the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s operations in Beit Lahiya and North Gaza, which are currently in their fourth month, have killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians, most of them women and children. Global experts are also warning that a famine has likely taken hold in the region as Israel continues to maintain a tight blockade on the area, only allowing a handful of aid trucks to get through.

Israel bombs tents in Gaza ‘safe-zone’, kills at least 11: Reports

At least 11 people have been confirmed dead following the Israeli attack on tents housing displaced Palestinians in the so-called southern “humanitarian zone”, the Reuters news agency reports, citing medical sources.

Those killed included two women and three children, while at least 15 others have also been wounded, the Shehab news agency reported.

Gaza police chief killed in al-Mawasi attack: Reports

Palestinian media now reports that Mahmoud Salah, the director-general of Gaza’s police force, and his assistant, Hussam Mustafa Shawan, have both been killed in that attack.

#متابعة_شهاب | استشهاد محمود صلاح مدير عام الشرطة في قطاع غزة ومعاونه حسام مصطفى شهوان في مجزرة راح ضحيتها 11 شهيدًا في مواصي خانيونس فجر اليوم. pic.twitter.com/KKZeFg6snv

— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) January 2, 2025

Translation: The martyrdom of Mahmoud Salah, the director-general of police in the Gaza Strip, and his assistant, Hussam Mustafa Shawan, in a massacre that claimed the lives of 11 people in the al-Mawasi area of ​​Khan Younis at dawn today.

Gaza ministry confirms killing of police chief, deputy in Israel attack

Among the dead from an Israeli air attack that killed at least 11 people in the al-Mawasi “humanitarian zone” were the chief of Gaza’s police force Mahmud Salah and his deputy Hussam Shahwan.

The Interior Ministry condemned the killing of the two police officers saying “they were performing their humanitarian and national duty in serving our people”.

“By committing the assassination, the occupation continues to spread chaos in the Strip and deepen the human suffering of citizens. The police force is a civil protection force that works to provide services to citizens,” it said.

Salah spent 30 years in the police and was appointed its chief six years ago. The Israeli military said it’s looking into the incident.

Israeli army says al-Mawasi attack targeted deputy police chief

The Israeli military confirmed its overnight attack on the al-Mawasi “humanitarian area” near Gaza’s southern Khan Younis city. In a statement on Telegram, the army said the attack killed Gaza’s police chief and alleged “head of Hamas Internal Security Forces” Hussam Shahwan.

“Hussam Shahwan was responsible for developing intelligence assessments in coordination with elements of Hamas’s military wing in attacks on the [army] in the Gaza Strip,” the military alleged.

Joy as two Palestinian children reunite with their parents in Gaza

The UN’s children agency (UNICEF) says it has reunited two Palestinian girls with their parents in Gaza after they were separated amid Israel’s war on the enclave.

The agency said the sisters, Sama, 12, and Lama, 11, had stayed in north Gaza amid Israeli bombings while the parents were moved south. They were reunited in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza after more than a year of separation.

Thus far, UNICEF says it has managed to reunite more than 60 children with their parents. The agency estimates that 17,000 children are unaccompanied or separated from their parents.

Watch the moment Sama and Lama reunite with their mother below:

‘Parents wade through waist-deep water to collect their dead’

Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, a paediatric intensive care physician who has worked in Gaza, says severe malnutrition among Palestinians is contributing to rising hypothermia deaths among children.

“I’m watching children die in every possible way whether it’s violence, cold, hunger, disease – all directly as a consequence of a carefully orchestrated Israeli military campaign that has been enabled by the United States and other countries that are turning a deaf ear and blind eye,” she told Al Jazeera.

“We’re watching as parents wade through waist-deep water to collect their dead.”

Haj-Hassan denounced the international community for its failure to stop Israel’s devastating war.

“I struggle for words to describe how horrific the situation has become and how deaf the world has become to repeated cries from humanitarian workers, and mostly from Gazans themselves. They have documented on a daily basis their own genocide and have been killed for doing so.”

Israel’s allies ‘allowing Gaza to be destroyed with impunity’: MSF

Paula Gil, Spain president of Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, shared her concerns about the fast-deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza after her recent visit.

“Gaza today is a death trap. Families are surviving in makeshift shelters made of wood, plastic, and mattresses. Now the cold and the storms have arrived. How will they face the winter in these conditions?” she said.

“This does not happen in a vacuum. The hypocrisy and complicity of Israel’s allies is allowing the social fabric of Gaza to be destroyed with impunity. There are no more squares, no more schools, no more places for children to play or families to gather.

“There is no future. There is no hope. In Gaza, humanity is being destroyed and we cannot look away.”

“Families are surviving in makeshift shelters made of wood, plastic, and mattresses. Now the cold and the storms have arrived. How will they face the winter in these conditions?”

Paula Gil, MSF Spain President, who visited Gaza recently, shares her concerns about the current… pic.twitter.com/4vzdzkBOHx

— MSF International (@MSF) January 2, 2025

Four Palestinians killed in Israeli air attack on Shati camp

At least four people have been killed and several wounded after Israeli air attacks hit the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, medical sources told Al Jazeera.

Israeli settlers storm West Bank town under military protection

Dozens of Israeli settlers who raided the town of Kifl Haris to perform religious rituals at Islamic shrines have also attacked homes and vehicles there, according to the Wafa news agency. The raid on Kifl Haris, located north of Salfit in the occupied West Bank, took place under the protection of Israeli soldiers, Wafa reported.

Prior to the raid, the soldiers closed the gate to the town, and forced shop owners to shutter their businesses and imposed a curfew there, the agency added.

Israeli soldier injured in West Bank ramming attack

Earlier, we reported the Israeli military said a suspect had been “neutralised” after attacking Israeli forces using a car in the occupied West Bank town of Deir Qaddis, near Ramallah.

The Israeli military has now confirmed that a female soldier was lightly injured in the incident, which it described as a “car bomb attack”.

Tulkarem Brigade targets Israeli forces with explosive device

The Palestinian armed group, which is affiliated with the al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, said it attacked Israeli forces with bullets and an explosive device in the occupied West Bank town of Anabta, near Tulkarem.

Main events on Januari 2nd

Journalist in Israel says ‘there is no starvation in Gaza’

Dan Perry, former chairman of the Foreign Press Association of Israel, acknowledged there has been obstruction of aid during the harsh winter months, leading to severe humanitarian issues across the Gaza Strip.

But he highlighted Israel’s argument that Hamas hijacks aid, complicating relief efforts. Despite accusations from aid organisations and the UN, Perry also contended there is no widespread starvation occurring in Gaza.

UN team witnesses the devastation of north Gaza

Humanitarian teams from the United Nations and the World Health Organization finally arrived in northern Gaza in late December, after months of being denied entry by the Israeli military.

They said they observed hospitals in ruins and thousands of people without water, food or sanitation.

Jabalia refugee camp now a ‘ghost town’ after Israeli assault: Report

The Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza has been left a “ghost town” with no buildings left intact, according to a report in Israel’s daily newspaper Maariv.

The report says the camp is now only home to stray dogs and any buildings that remain standing have been pockmarked by bullets or other explosive shells.

Heavy rains that have hit Gaza in recent days have turned the dust of bombed buildings to a mud with the consistency of quicksand.

Israeli soldiers who spoke to reporters for the story claimed the level of destruction had forced Palestinian fighters to retreat. However, US-based defence think tanks monitoring the war, said that Palestinian armed groups launched a “multi-wave” attack on Israeli forces in Jabalia on Monday that was significantly larger than any seen in recent months in Gaza.

Military veterans accuse Israeli forces of ‘criminally immoral’ actions in Gaza

Israeli military veterans have castigated Israeli forces for the huge civilian death toll in Gaza, accusing the country’s armed forces of being unconcerned with the accuracy of their bombing and relying on flawed artificial intelligence in target selection.

Breaking the Silence, a veterans’ organisation monitoring Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory, said the current death toll of 45,000 people killed in Gaza means that 15,000 more people have been killed than the Israeli army’s estimate for Hamas’s entire membership.

While the “rate of death” in Gaza outpaces wars in Myanmar, Ukraine and Iraq, Hamas has still not been defeated, Breaking the Silence said in a series of posts on social media.

“For more than a year since October 7th, 2023, we’ve seen the [Israeli military] make more and more criminally immoral trade-offs,” the group said.

“Deprioritising accuracy in favour of pace, careful planning in favour of brute force, humanity in favour of technology. All it got us in return was more death and ruin,” it said.

And with the IDF destroying so much of the electric and internet infrastructure in Gaza, people conserve battery, and when they try to log on, reception is spotty at best. Multiple attacks reportedly took place hours after the AI’s green light was given and the target had moved.

— Breaking the Silence (@BtSIsrael) January 2, 2025

Israeli lawmakers push for more aggressive approach in northern Gaza

Eight right-wing members of Israel’s parliament, known as the Knesset, have called for a change in the military strategy in Gaza, arguing that the current approach is failing to achieve its objectives.

In a letter to Defense Minister Israel Katz, the lawmakers urged an immediate shift to the so-called “Generals’ Plan,” a controversial strategy touted by a retired member of the Israeli military, suggesting the army forcibly empties Gaza’s north of its entire population and regard anyone remaining as an enemy combatant.

Since October 2023, Israel has been implementing a version of this plan, which involves intensive airstrikes and a strict siege that has blocked the entry of food, water and medical supplies.

The letter, signed by members of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, including Amit Halevi, Zvi Sukkot, Ariel Kellner, Ohad Tal, Nissim Vaturi and Osher Shekalim, was reported by local newspaper Israel Hayom.

_{A photo taken while embedded with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) shows Israeli soldiers at a position in the Palestinian town of Beit Lahia, northern Gaza Strip}

UN human rights chief says Israel has not provided evidence for claims on Gaza hospitals

Volker Turk says the UN has recorded 136 Israeli attacks on 27 health facilities in Gaza, which have caused “significant death and destruction”. While Israel often states that Palestinian armed groups use such facilities for military purposes, Turk said Israel has not backed up those claims with evidence.

“Israel has not provided sufficient information to substantiate many of these claims, which are often vague and broad. In some cases they appear to be contradicted by publicly available information,” Turk said in remarks to the United Nations Security Council.

Turk called for an independent investigation to probe Israel’s attacks on hospitals and the allegations that Hamas is using those facilities for military purposes.

Israel’s means and methods of warfare have killed tens of thousands of people, inflicted vast displacement and laid waste to the territory, he added, saying “a human rights catastrophe continues to unfold in Gaza before the eyes of the world.”