Despite a UNSC resolution calling for humanitarian aid in Gaza amid Israeli attacks, Gazans remain starving. Meanwhile, Palestinian bodies returned by Israel were “mutilated” and missing “vital organs” according to Gaza officials
Casualties:
- 20,915+ killed* and at least 54,536 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
- 311 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem
- Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,405 to 1,139.
- 498 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 1,952 injured.
*This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on December 26. Due to breakdowns in communication networks within the Gaza Strip, the Ministry of Health in Gaza has been unable to regularly and accurately update its tolls since mid-November. Some rights groups put the death toll number closer to 28,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.
Key Developments:
- Gaza Media Office: Palestinian bodies returned “mutilated,” Israel removed “vital organs from them.”
- Israel bombs West Bank refugee camp east of Tulkarem, killing six Palestinian youths.
- Israeli Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi: Israeli forces will not refrain from operating in declared “safe zones” if it “identifies terrorist organization activity.”
- Palestinian telecommunication company: Gaza sent into yet another communications blackout on Tuesday and Wednesday.
- Iraq militia pledges more attacks on American forces.
- Israeli teen sentenced to 30 days in prison after refusing to join military.
- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas: What is happening in Gaza is greater and more horrific than the Nakba in 1948.
- Red Sea attacks by Yemeni armed forces continue as U.S. shoots down drones and missiles.
- Prominent Palestinian political activist Khalida Jarrar held without charge or trial following Israeli arrest on Tuesday.
- OCHA: Over 4,037 students and 209 educational staff killed in Gaza since October 7, over 7,259 students and 619 teachers injured.
- Three dead from Israeli strike in Bint Jbeil, Lebanon, including one Hezbollah fighter and two civilians.
- Gaza’s Ministry of Health: At least 241 people killed and 382 injured in the past 24 hours.
| Israel’s war cabinet took an Egyptian proposal to end the war with Hamas to a wider security cabinet. |
| The planned presentation came alongside a broader briefing on hostage-release efforts and other war issues, according to a person familiar with the meeting’s agenda. Israeli officials said it is unlikely that the country can agree to any deal that allows for a postwar role for Hamas in Gaza, as the Egyptian plan proposes. However, Israel is willing to discuss the first stage of the plan, which would see the release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Israel’s release of Palestinian prisoners, a senior lawmaker in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party said. Hamas led an attack on Israel on Oct. 7 in which around 1,200 people were killed and around 240 others abducted and taken to Gaza. |
| Israel Deepens War Amid Concerns of Wider Conflict |
| There are no magic solutions, there are no shortcuts in dismantling a terrorist organization, only determined and persistent fighting,” Israel’s Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said. “We will reach Hamas’ leadership too, whether it takes a week or if it takes months.”Despite international calls for a ceasefire, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued yet another warning to Hamas and said Israeli forces are “deepening operations” in Gaza. Israel’s Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said the war will go on for “many months.” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who described the war as “beyond a catastrophe,” said the region could collapse at any time. Egypt has proposed a plan that would see the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and an eventual suspension of Israeli operations. But the plan appears to be preliminary, and it remains unclear if both sides will agree to the deal’s terms. |