In Gaza, 4th baby freezes to death, Israel kills 5 Palestinian journalists

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

Nearly 50 Palestinians were killed Thursday in an Israeli airstrike on a building opposite the headquarters of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip. Among the dead are two ambulance crew members.

At least 14 more Palestinians are dead and 50 others have been wounded in Israeli air strikes on Gaza City on Thursday.

Five Palestinians were also reportedly killed in an Israeli air strike on an area sheltering forcibly displaced families in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northern Gaza.

These figures are in addition to 34 Palestinians killed by Israel earlier in the day.

A view of the smoke and fire following an Israeli air attack on the Kamal Adwan Hospital.

Fourth infant dies due to cold weather in Gaza

A fourth infant in Gaza has reportedly died due to extreme cold in the past 72 hours.

Medical sources said the baby died after the drop in temperature amid the dire humanitarian conditions across the enclave.

These babies’ deaths are likely going uncounted in Gaza authorities’ official death toll of the genocide, which largely excludes “indirect” deaths like those to disease or starvation. Rather, the official toll, which stands at over 45,000, mostly counts deaths from “direct” attacks like bombings.

A Palestinian family tries to protect themselves from the cold weather by lighting a fire on the rubble of their house, in central Gaza, Dec. 26

Israeli attacks kill five more Palestinian journalists in Gaza

Israel killed five more Palestinian journalists in Gaza earlier Thursday, hitting a broadcast van clearly marked as press in an air strike.

It was the latest in what experts and press freedom advocates have decried as an Israeli campaign to target Palestinian reporters in Gaza.

In a social media post, the Israeli military claimed it eliminated “several Islamic Jihad terrorists posing as journalists”. The assertion echoes previous false or unproven claims that Israel has issued after hitting reporters in the past.

The deceased journalists were identified as Fadi Hassouna, Ibrahim al-Sheikh Ali, Mohammed al-Ladah, Faisal Abu al-Qumsan and Ayman al-Jadi.

Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif reported that one reporter, al-Jadi, had been waiting for his wife in front of the hospital while she was in labour to give birth to their first child.

Gaza’s Government Media Office says the Israeli killing of five journalists earlier this morning has taken the death toll among media workers in Gaza since the war began to 201.

Journalist documents moment Israeli tries to run her over in occupied West Bank

Journalist Raghad Salameh posted a video last night, verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency, documenting an attempt by an Israeli military four-wheel drive to run her and the camera over during live coverage of the raid in the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem.

The journalist commented, saying: “A military vehicle deliberately tries to run me over and hits the camera, knocking it to the ground during a live broadcast in Nur Shams camp.”

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A post shared by Raghad Salameh (@raghadsalameh4)

Israel slacks off on war protocols to allow rampant killing of civilians in Gaza: Report

The Israeli army has “severely weakened” its protocols to protect civilians during military operations since the start of the war in Gaza, allowing mid-ranking officers to order indiscriminate strikes from the air force, according to a New York Times (NYT) investigation.

According to NYT, officers were granted the authority right after 7 October to risk the killing of up to 20 civilians in each airstrike. The order had “no precedent” in Israel’s military history.

“Mid-ranking officers had never been given so much leeway to attack so many targets, many of which had lower military significance, at such a high potential civilian cost,” NYT said, adding that under this order, “the military could target rank-and-file militants as they were at home surrounded by relatives and neighbors.”

Previously, Israeli strikes were approved only after officers found that no civilians would be hurt. In some cases, the military had granted them the leeway of risking up to five civilian deaths. Nonetheless, this did not stop brutally deadly strikes against civilians in previous conflicts.

An anonymous military officer told NYT that Israel changed its protocol because it believed it was existentially threatened (continue reading here).

Injured Palestinians run in the aftermath of an Israeli air strike, in Gaza City, Thursday

West Bank: Israeli army stops unintended victims of drone strike from reaching hospital

The Israeli army stopped the victims of a drone strike in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarm from reaching a hospital, as they blocked off roads and carried out another military operation, relatives of the family said.

According to Haaretz, two Palestinians, identified as Khawla Abdullah, 53, and Bara’a Al-Sheikh Ali, 21, were killed in the drone attack with the Israeli army later admitting they were not the intended targets.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health later announced that three others were killed and nine wounded, including a 10-year-old boy in the attack. One person was also killed in the nearby Nur Shams camp.

Despite the injuries, the Israeli army stopped ambulances from entering the site and put the area under a complete lockdown.

Israeli forces also shot and killed a Palestinian young man, on Thursday night, in the town of Ya’bad, west of Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank.

Media sources said that occupation forces shot and killed the young man, Zain Ali Tawfiq Atatreh, 18, after invading Ya’bad town and opening fire on citizens.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that its ambulance crews transported the seriously injured young man to hospital after he sustained a live gunshot wound to the chest.

Since the beginning of the Israeli military onslaught against the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, Israeli forces have killed 836 Palestinians in the West Bank, including 172 children, and injured 6,500.

Israeli army excavators take position in Tulkarem, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank

Israel attacked Sanaa airport in Yemen while WHO chief was there

The Israeli army said on Thursday that it had launched air strikes on multiple targets in Yemen, including Sanaa International Airport, three ports and two power stations, in a major offensive against the Houthi movement.

Almasirah, a TV channel affiliated with Houthis, reported that at least three people have been killed and 11 wounded in the attacks.

The targeted sites included Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations as well as military infrastructure in the ports of Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Kanatib, according to a statement from the Israeli military.

While the Houthis have yet to comment on Thursday’s attacks, Almasirah confirmed strikes on the airport, Hodeidah and a power station.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented on the attacks, saying his army will continue its campaign against the Houthis “until the job is done”.

WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus says the Israeli attack hit Sanaa airport just as he and the WHO teams were leaving the capital following a humanitarian mission to free UN detainees.

Tedros was in Yemen as part of a mission to seek the release of detained UN staff and assess the health and humanitarian situations in the war-torn country.

“One of our plane’s crew members was injured. At least two people were reported killed at the airport. The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge – just a few meters from where we were – and the runway was damaged,” Ghebreyesus wrote on X.

He added that WHO teams are waiting for the damage to the airport to be repaired before they can leave.

Some analysts expect a major retaliation from Yemen.

A fleet of fighter jets and aerial refueling aircraft seen as took off from the military air base on the Red Sea coast in Eilat, Israel on July 20, 2024

Israeli minister storms Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir forced his way into the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem on Thursday, marking a new provocation amid the ongoing war on Gaza, Anadolu Agency reports.

Ben-Gvir entered the site under heavy police protection and toured the mosque’s courtyard, said an official with the Jordan-run Islamic Endowments Department in Jerusalem.

This was the extremist minister’s fifth visit to the flashpoint complex since he joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in 2022.

It coincided with the week-long Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which started on Thursday.

MORE NEWS:

IMEMC Daily Reports.

Waging Nonviolence: Archiving as resistance to Genocide Denial in Gaza

Truthout: Israeli Citizenship Has Always Been a Tool of Genocide — So I Renounced Mine

Palestinians in Gaza are facing another winter living in tent camps under Israel’s unrelenting bombardment. They’re using their ingenuity to survive the cold and rain.

Here are some of their inventions: pic.twitter.com/D9vW5ZDFkl

— AJ+ (@ajplus) December 26, 2024

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – DECEMBER 26, 2024:

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – December 26, 2024: at least 46,272* – 45,436 in Gaza; in the West Bank, Israeli soldiers and/or settlers have killed at least 836 Palestinians (~172 of them children).

Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 11,000 more are still buried under rubble.

According to a report in the Lancet, by multiplying the reported deaths by five, it is possible to reach a conservative estimate of total deaths (including indirect causes like starvation and lack of medicine). Using the latest figure from AFP (45,436), it is reasonable to estimate at least 227,180 total deaths in Gaza since October 7th, 2023.

According to a recent report by the UN Human Rights Office of identified fatalities in Gaza, about 44% were children. It is reasonable to estimate that 19,992 of known direct deaths and 99,959 of the total deaths are children.

Since Israel launched an extermination campaign in northern Gaza in early October, over 4,000 Palestinians have been killed or are missing and another 12,000 wounded.

Palestinian injuries from October 7, 2023 – December 26, 2024: at least 114,440 (including at least 108,038 in Gaza and 6,500 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – December 26, 2024: ~1,595 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 417*** (or 392) military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza (updated: Dec 17); 39 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

ADDITIONAL STATISTICS: Since October 7th, 2023:

At least 49 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (at least 30 from Gaza).
At least 43 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition (at least 37 of them children)**.
About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced.
About 345,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.

*The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.

Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.

**Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals.

***The figure does not include the reportedly 59 Israeli soldiers – nearly 17% of the total Israeli military deaths – killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents.

† For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.

Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers. Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org