‘It is a famine’: Palestinians decry worsening hunger in Gaza

As we’ve been reporting, the United Nation’s humanitarian agency (OCHA) has warned that Israeli attacks on aid workers and the collapse of law and order have made aid efforts in the Gaza Strip nearly impossible.

The warning comes as delivery of aid to the enclave has dwindled due to Israeli restrictions.

This is forcing Palestinians in central Deir el-Balah to queue for hours, every day, outside soup kitchens to receive hot meals.

“The prices are very high in the market, and there’s a shortage of flour. I have been coming to this charity for more than eight months,” said Ayman Zayed, a displaced Palestinian. “They help us with 90 percent of our needs. Without it, one would not know what to do.”

Um Omar Al Bayari, who was displaced from northern Beit Hanoon, decried the worsening hunger crisis in Gaza.

“I take the pot back to find the children waiting for me. One would be holding their plate and another holding their spoon. And it is not enough for them,” she said. “Are we going to stay in these conditions? This is injustice, hunger… I mean it is famine, a famine. How long will we remain like this?”


_{Palestinians gather to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen in Khan Younis on January 2}


US historians vote to condemn Israel’s ‘scholasticide’ in Gaza

Members of the American Historical Association (AHA) have approved a resolution condemning Israel’s “intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system”.

The Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza, approved at the group’s annual conference on Sunday, accused Israel of destroying “80 percent of schools in Gaza, leaving 625,000 children with no educational access”.

It also condemned Israel for its destruction of “all 12 Gaza university campuses”, as well as “Gaza’s archives, libraries, cultural centres, museums, and bookstores, including 195 heritage sites, 227 mosques, three churches, and the al-Aqsa University library”.

The contentious vote ended with 428 in favour and 88 opposed. The resolution will now go to the AHA Council, which will decide whether to approve it, veto it or declare nonconcurrence.

The AHA is the oldest professional association of historians in the US

‘How many more to go?’: Aid group slams Israel, US over killing of neonatal doctor in Gaza

The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) has denounced Israel for what it called “the targeting and killing of women and healthcare workers” after an Israeli air raid killed Dr Thabat Salim, a 30-year-old female neonatal doctor, in the central Nuseirat refugee camp on Friday.

Salim’s death “is more than a tragedy”, said Dr Alvaro Bermejo, the director general of IPPF.

“It is a devastating indictment of the conditions under which women healthcare providers live and work. She was Palestinian. She was living in Gaza. She was a woman of reproductive age. She was a doctor. She worked in a hospital. She cared for Palestine’s next generation; newborn babies. These factors should have made her a symbol of hope and healing. Instead, they culminated in her murder.”

Bermejo said the Israeli government was not acting alone in the killing of women and healthcare workers.

“The US government – of which we are a recipient of their aid – supplied more than $18bn in military aid last year. Under the current Administration, they pledged $8bn more. These funds, meant for military support, translate into more murdered doctors, and many more murdered women and children. They translate to more men killed, injured or incarcerated, and more families shattered,” she said.

Officials in Gaza say Israel has killed more than 1,000 healthcare workers since October 7. The World Health Organization (WHO) has accused Israel of systematically dismantling Gaza’s healthcare sector, saying it has verified at least 654 attacks on healthcare facilities in the territory since the war began.

Dr Thabat Salim, born in 1994, was a skilled neonatologist and volunteer at Al-Aqsa hospital since the start of the genocide.
While delivering medication to the Abdul Kareem family, the IOF bombed the home, killing Dr.Salim and everyone inside. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a n-anamacha pic.twitter.com/nLDucIMDIP

— irish_hcworkers_for_palestine (@IrishhcwforPal) January 7, 2025

Trump threat: ‘All this carnage in Gaza, what else is he going to do?

Sami al-Arian, director of the Center for Islam and Global Affairs at Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University, says President-elect Trump’s threat of “all hell breaking loose” in the Middle East if Hamas doesn’t immediately release the Israeli captives “doesn’t mean much”.

“Trump is being true to himself with his imperialist mind. He thinks whenever he says something people will bow and say ‘OK sir’,” al-Arian told Al Jazeera. “All this carnage and massive casualties in Gaza, what else is he going to do?”

He blamed the Israeli government for thwarting a Gaza ceasefire with Hamas over the past eight months.

“The Qataris, the Egyptians, the Americans know fully well who has been obstructing and blocking. Every time they reach an agreement, [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu comes back and asks for new conditions … His fascist cabinet members are dictating for him what to do,” said al-Arian.

That was 7 months ago...

‘Hell will break out’: Trump hints at Middle East military moves

President-elect Donald Trump issued a stern warning of repercussions in the Middle East if Hamas does not release Israeli captives by the time he takes office.

Some observers interpreted Trump’s statement as a threat of possible US military intervention in Gaza – a line outgoing President Joe Biden has refused to cross, despite surging military aid to Israel.

When asked to explain what he meant at a news conference, Trump responded: “Do I have to define it for you?

“If they’re not back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East, and it will not be good for Hamas and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone. I don’t have to say any more, but that’s what it is.”

Trump threat of Gaza hell ‘a joke’ to Palestinians with 45,900 now dead

We can safely say the Israeli military has used everything possible across the Gaza Strip. The consensus among the displaced Palestinian population is that Gaza has become a testing lab for the Israeli army.

From the use of bunker-buster bombs, “precise” ammunition, to drone missiles, the entire arsenal has been deployed across Gaza. If you look at the sky at any moment you’ll see different kinds of aircraft from reconnaissance planes and drones to fighter jets and helicopters.

So the kind of “hell” that Donald Trump is talking about – it’s more of a joke to people here right now because every weapon has been used to kill a large number of civilians.

Palestinians are keeping their eyes and ears on one thing: the end of Israel’s war with the release of the Israel captives and Palestinian prisoners – and the end of the ongoing killing in Gaza.

Another baby killed in Israeli attacks on central Gaza

As we reported earlier, the Israeli military killed two people in an attack on the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

An infant was among the victims of that attack, which struck the Washah family home, according to the Quds News Network and the Palestinian Information Center.

The baby is the second to be killed in the Palestinian enclave in recent hours. Earlier, Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent on the ground reported that a 15-day-old newborn was killed when Israeli forces bombed a home in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood.

Most violent attack overnight in Gaza’s Khan Younis kills at least 20

In just the past few minutes, there was a funeral for people killed in overnight strikes on central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah. But the most violent attacks happened in southern Khan Younis, in the al-Mawasi evacuation zone.

We’re talking about five air strikes within a span of 45 minutes. These attacks targeted two tents, one residential flat, a home, and a vehicle. A total of 20 people were killed – including five children. The flat housed displaced people from Gaza City.

People were literally told to move to this area because it’s designated by the Israeli military as a “safe zone”. It highlights only one fact – that even marked evacuation zones are not safe for people.

In central Gaza, three people were killed in an attack on a home in Deir el-Balah. People arrived at Al-Aqsa Hospital with critical injuries, but because of the lack of medical supplies, they are not going to be treatable.

In Bureij refugee camp, at midnight a four-storey building was flattened to the ground. Civil defence members were able to recover only the body of a four-month-old baby from under the rubble. Rescue efforts were initiated again this morning, but until now they’re unable to find any other bodies.

Gaza death toll rises

At least 51 Palestinians have been killed and 78 injured in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry. The latest deaths brought the total toll to 45,936, it said.

Israel’s war on Gaza also injured a total of 109,274 people, the announcement added.

Gaza’s Nasser Hospital partially shuts down due to fuel shortage

The Palestinian Information Center has cited Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis as saying that the health facility in Gaza’s southern city has stopped providing health services, except for the intensive care unit and operating rooms, due to the fuel crisis.

It comes a day after Gaza’s Health Ministry warned of “a real disaster” as none of the remaining operational health facilities in the enclave has any fuel stock left, “threatening hospitals, oxygen stations, medicine refrigerators, and nurseries”.

“The [Israeli] occupation forces aid convoys, including fuel trucks, to take roads filled with thieves and bandits to steal them under its protection,” the ministry said.

Israel blocks UN probe into Hamas sexual crimes to avoid inquiry into abuse of Palestinian prisoners: Report

Israel is blocking the United Nations from investigating sexual crimes committed by Hamas during its October 7 attack, fearing it would require granting access to probe allegations of sexual violence against Palestinians in Israeli detention, according to the Haaretz newspaper.

UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten has requested permission to investigate Hamas’s alleged crimes, the Israeli publication said. However, she stipulated that her team must also be allowed to access Israeli detention facilities to examine claims of sexual violence by Israeli soldiers, the newspaper noted.

Israel has refused the request, according to Haaretz.

Patten’s office warned that Israel’s resistance to UN investigations into alleged crimes attributed to it could backfire, according to representatives of the Israel Women’s Network, who met with Patten’s team in New York last month.

The representatives further said they were told that Israel’s approach could result in its inclusion on the UN’s blacklist of entities responsible for sexual violence in conflicts, while Hamas could remain off the list. Another source familiar with the matter confirmed these details to Haaretz.

Israel’s defence minister calls West Bank shooting an ‘act of war’

Israel Katz has promised to respond to the deadly gun attack near the illegal Israeli settlement of Kedumim in the occupied West Bank. The attack by Palestinian gunmen on Monday killed two women and an off-duty police officer, while also wounding eight others.

Israeli authorities say three men from the Jenin area carried out the attack and they are still at large.

“The despicable, murderous terror attack that occurred here yesterday is an act of war for all intents and purposes, and it will be answered accordingly,” Katz said during a visit to the site.

“We will hit the terrorists and those who sent them, and we will act powerfully against the places from where the terrorists came,” he added.

Israel carrying out a ‘silent war’ in the occupied West Bank

Some analysts are calling what is happening in the occupied West Bank a “silent war”.

With attention on Gaza, the Israeli military has been raiding the occupied West Bank quite intensively for the last 15 months in a way that hasn’t really been seen before. They have had raids on a much larger scale, and of much larger sizes, because Israel says it wants to combat the threat of Palestinian fighters.

But Palestinians across the occupied West Bank will tell you that this is just a reality of living life under Israeli occupation.

The military raids, the checkpoints, the constant road closures. The way the military comes into these towns is that they come with bulldozers, they tear up the roads, they destroy critical infrastructure, which Palestinians see as a form of collective punishment.

Israel maintains it is trying to combat the threat of Palestinian fighters, but these fighters say that they have a legitimate right to resist the occupation.

New clashes reported between PA forces, Palestinian fighters in Jenin

As we have previously reported, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has carried out a weeks-long security operation against the Jenin Brigades, a coalition of Palestinian armed groups in the occupied West Bank.

Our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues, citing sources in the Jenin area, now report that armed clashes have again taken place between PA security forces and armed groups in the Jenin refugee camp over recent hours.

Israel kills 3 Palestinian fighters in West Bank’s Tammun: Report

The Israeli army has killed three Palestinian fighters in an air strike on the town of Tammun in the Tubas governorate in the northern West Bank, according to Israeli Army Radio.

Earlier, we reported that Israeli forces had besieged two houses. Israeli jets bombed Tammun yesterday, killing at least one Palestinian man.

Israeli forces arrested 45 Palestinians in West Bank: Prisoners’ groups

At least 45 Palestinians, including a child and two women, have been arrested by Israeli forces across the occupied West Bank since yesterday evening until this morning, according to prisoners’ groups.

The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said the arrests were made in the governorates of Hebron, Nablus, Tubas, Tulkarem, Ramallah, and Jerusalem.

They also said in a statement that the arrests were accompanied by widespread raids and abuse, attacks and threats against the detainees and their families, in addition to acts of vandalism and destruction in Palestinian citizens’ homes.

In addition, Israeli forces carried out field investigations of about 25 citizens in the town of Sa’ir in the Hebron governorate, leading to two detentions, the groups said.

Israeli forces fire tear gas at teachers, students at West Bank school

A number of teachers and students suffered injuries after inhaling tear gas that Israeli soldiers launched at the Kisan School east of Bethlehem, Wafa news agency reports.

Palestinians at the school were reportedly throwing stones at military vehicles when troops launched the barrage of gas.

Violence has intensified in the occupied West Bank in recent days with Israeli settlers carrying out a series of arson attacks after Palestinian gunmen killed three Israelis near an illegal settlement.

Access to healthcare in Hebron’s H2 area ‘seriously compromised’: MSF

Doctors Without Borders, also known as Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF), says Hebron’s H2 area, which is under complete Israeli military control, is one of the most restricted places in the occupied West Bank.

In a statement, the charity said it has been “forced to suspend activities for several months inside H2”.

“We are warning that access to healthcare is seriously compromised and that people’s mental and physical health is at risk and deteriorating,” it said.

Chloe Janssen, MSF project coordinator, said that while teams can provide care in a clinic in the Jaber neighbourhood, “access remains challenging as our staff can be searched and delayed at the checkpoints to enter the H2 area”.

“Access to medical care should never be arbitrarily denied, impeded or blocked,” Janssen said.

_{In Hebron’s H2, 700 Israeli settlers get military protection while 35,000 Palestinians can be shot if they step outside}

Main events from January 8th

US Quaker group says NYT rejected ad that called Israel’s war in Gaza a ‘genocide’

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) accused The New York Times of “an outrageous attempt to sidestep the truth” after the newspaper refused to run an advertisement that described Israel’s actions in Gaza as a “genocide”.

The proposed advertisement read:

“Tell Congress to stop arming Israel’s genocide in Gaza now! As a Quaker organization, we work for peace. Join us. Tell the President and Congress to stop the killing and starvation in Gaza.”

The AFSC, a peace and social justice Quaker group, said the newspaper justified its decision by saying there are “differing views on the situation” in Gaza and that it “must ensure that all advertising content complies with these widely applied definitions”.

The group said it has now cancelled the planned advertising with the newspaper.

We’ve canceled planned advertising with The New York Times after it refused to allow an ad referring to Israel’s genocide in #Gaza.

Joyce Ajlouny, AFSC's General Secretary, called the refusal “an outrageous attempt to sidestep the truth.” https://t.co/gDfNmDEOSH pic.twitter.com/vozqR3SiQ7

— AFSC (@afsc_org) January 8, 2025

White House insists Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza

Reporters asked White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby why the US has determined a genocide is unfolding in Sudan, while refusing to do the same with Gaza.

Kirby said that although the death toll in Gaza is “unacceptably high” and there have been “too many civilian casualties”, the Biden administration does not believe Israel is committing genocide in the Palestinian territory.

“The [Israeli military] isn’t waking up every day and putting their boots on the floor, saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to go kill some innocent people because they happen to be Palestinian,’” Kirby said during the press briefing on Wednesday.

“We have been nothing but direct with our Israeli counterparts about our concerns on [the death toll] and about trying to get them … to be more discriminate about the civilian toll in Gaza,” he added.

US has power to halt all military aid to Israel: Doctors Against Genocide

A global coalition of healthcare workers called Doctors Against Genocide has called for the United States to end military aid to Israel after colleagues were detained last month by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.

The group mobilised more than 50 medical professionals on Capitol Hill to advocate for the release of Hussam Abu Safia, director of the destroyed Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, who was detained by Israeli troops along with others during a December 27 raid on the health facility.

Steve Berman, a member of Doctors Against Genocide who is “very concerned” about the crisis in Gaza, the forced detentions of doctors and the deliberate murder of innocent civilians.

“This should never have happened, and if you can, please stop. Not if you can. I know you can. But please stop the support of the Israeli government because they’re killing innocent people,” Berman, a retired cardiologist, told Anadolu Agency.

Israeli activists protest in front of the US embassy in Tel Aviv

_{Activists sit in front of the US embassy branch office in Tel Aviv, Israel, during a protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and call for the release of captives held in the Gaza Strip, on Wednesday}

Parents of Israeli soldiers call on PM Netanyahu to end Gaza war

Israeli news Channel 12 says more than 800 parents of Israeli soldiers and reservists have pressed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the bloody war on Gaza.

“We demand an end to the war and the return of all those abducted in the agreement. We will embark on an uncompromising struggle. We will not allow the Gaza Strip to become our child’s cemetery,” it cited a statement from the parents as saying.

Three Israeli soldiers were killed and three were wounded in fighting on Wednesday in the northern Gaza Strip. Since ground incursions began in October 2023, 401 Israeli soldiers have been killed.

Israel’s army bolsters media rules over Gaza war crime fears

The Israeli military placed new restrictions on media coverage of soldiers on active combat duty amid growing concern over the risk of legal action against troops travelling abroad over allegations of involvement in war crimes in Gaza.

The move comes after an Israeli reservist holidaying in Brazil left the country abruptly when a Brazilian judge ordered federal police to open an investigation following allegations from a pro-Palestinian group that he committed war crimes while serving in Gaza.

Under the new rules, media interviewing soldiers of the rank of colonel and under will not be able to display their full names or faces, similar to the rules that already exist for pilots and members of special forces units, said Lieutenant-Colonel Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesperson.

“This is our new guideline to protect our soldiers and to make sure they are safe from these types of incidents hosted by anti-Israel activists around the world,” Shoshani said.

Shoshani said activist groups, such as the Belgium-based Hind Rajab Foundation, which pushed for the action in Brazil, were “connecting the dots” between soldiers who post material from Gaza and then other photos and videos of themselves while on holiday abroad.

Last year, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes in Gaza, drawing outrage in Israel.

Criminal complaints have been filed against vacationing Israeli soldiers in recent months in Cyprus, Sri Lanka, Argentina and Chile. The Hind Rajab Foundation claims to have compiled evidence against about 1,000 Israeli soldiers.