The administration of US President Joe Biden announced on Saturday an arms sale to Israel valued at $8 billion, just ahead of President-elect Donald Trump‘s return to the White House.
Biden has repeatedly rejected calls to suspend military backing for Israel because of the number of civilians killed during the war in Gaza. Israel has killed more than 45,000 people in Gaza, primarily women and children.
The Palestinian health ministry reported that 59 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza in the past 24 hours, raising the total death toll to 45,717 killed since 7 October 2023.
4 January 2025 20:29 GMT
At least 66 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Al Jazeera reported, citing medical sources.
According to testimonies gathered by Euro-Med Monitor, the Israeli army subsequently transferred Dr. Abu Safiya to a field interrogation site in the Al-Fakhura area of Jabalia Refugee Camp. There, he was forced to strip off his clothes and was subjected to severe beatings, including being whipped with a thick wire commonly used for street electrical wiring. Soldiers deliberately humiliated him in front of other detainees, including fellow medical staff. He was later taken to an undisclosed location before being transferred to the Sde Teyman military camp under Israeli army control.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has also received information from recently released detainees at the Sde Teyman military camp, confirming that Dr. Abu Safiya was subjected to severe torture, leading to a significant deterioration in his health. This occurred despite him already being injured by Israeli air strikes on the hospital, where he worked tirelessly until the facility was stormed and set ablaze by Israeli forces.
In response to an official request submitted by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) Israel on behalf of his family to arrange a lawyer’s visit for him, “Mashlat” – the body responsible for coordinating with the army regarding the location of detainees and prisoners from the occupied Gaza Strip – stated that they have no indication of his arrest or detention of the Kamal Adwan Hospital director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya. Despite clear documentation of his arrest, the Israeli army officially stated on Thursday, January 3, that “it has no indication of the arrest or detention of the Kamal Adwan Hospital Director.”
(January 3, 2024)
Summary
The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question – Security Council, 9830th meeting
Description
– Briefer: Mr. Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (via video-teleconference)
– Briefer: Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, Representative for the West Bank and Gaza, World Health Organization (via video-teleconference)
– Briefer: Dr. Tanya Haj Hassan, medical practitioner, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) Charity (via video-teleconference)
– Statements: All Council members
– Statement: Observer State of Palestine
– Statements: Israel, Egypt
In the first United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting on the Middle East for 2025, Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour asked the international body to show „courage“ in demanding the release of Dr Hussam Abu Safiyeh, the medical director of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza was detained by Israeli forces last week.
In a Security Council meeting on Friday, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, World Health Organization (WHO) representative for the West Bank and Gaza, painted a grim picture of the situation, emphasising that over 25 per cent of the 105,000 injured civilians now face life-changing injuries.
“At the current rate, it would take five to 10 years to evacuate all these critically ill patients,” Dr. Peeperkorn warned, noting that over 12,000 people remain on waiting lists for urgent treatment abroad.
Only 16 of the region’s 36 hospitals remain partially operational, their collective capacity merely above 1,800 beds – entirely insufficient for the overwhelming medical needs.
“The health sector is being systematically dismantled,” Dr. Peeperkorn noted, citing shortages of medical supplies, equipment, and personnel.
„The President has made clear Israel has a right to defend its citizens, consistent with international law and international humanitarian law, and to deter aggression from Iran and its proxy organizations. We will continue to provide the capabilities necessary for Israel‘s defense,“ a U.S. official said.
Meanwhile, the US is preparing an $8bn arms package for Israel, including heavy bombs
The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 45,658, with 108,583 others injured, the Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Friday.
In the past 24 hours alone, at least 77 people were killed and 145 others were injured in Gaza, according to the statement.
(December 2, 2024, 2:44:12 PM)
Doha, Qatar: Palestinian health Ministry said today, January 2, that at least 45,581 people have been killed by Israeli Occupation forces in nearly 15 months of war on Gaza.
Over the past 24 hours, Israeli air strikes have left more than 70 Palestinians dead, with dozens more wounded, according to Gaza’s health authorities. The staggering death toll highlights the devastating impact of Israel’s military assault on the densely populated region, where civilians are bearing the brunt of the onslaught.
On Thursday alone, Gaza’s government media office reported 34 air strikes carried out by the Israeli army, many of which struck civilian areas already ravaged by war.
The Indonesian Hospital, one the biggest health facilities in northern Gaza, has been out of service for weeks due to ongoing Israeli attacks and a debilitating siege put in place since early October.
Earlier this week, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the WHO, called on Israel to cease its attacks on Gaza‘s beleaguered hospitals and medical centres and offer a brief reprieve to exhausted Palestinians.
Syrian sources told Reuters that the foreign fighters appointed to the military include Uyghurs, a Jordanian, a Turk, and an Albanian. “This is a small token of recognition for the sacrifices Islamist jihadists gave to our struggle for freedom from Assad’s oppression,” an HTS source told the media outlet.
(…)
HTS is still designated by the US as a foreign terrorist organization, but the Biden administration has celebrated its takeover of Syria. The US has also made clear it’s willing to work with the new government and its de facto leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, who has been going by his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa.
At least 45,553 Palestinians have been killed and 108,379 wounded in Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Palestinian health ministry said on Wednesday.
UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese called on the medical community to act on Monday, as reports emerged that Israeli forces are holding the head of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Hussam Abu Safiya, at a torture camp for Palestinian detainees that’s notorious for its brutality.
“I urge medical professionals worldwide to pursue the severance of all ties with Israel as a concrete way to forcefully denounce Israel’s full destruction of the Palestinian healthcare system in Gaza, a critical tool of its ongoing genocide,” Albanese said.
(December 30, 2024)
Former detainees of Sde Teiman, a shadowy military base in Israel’s Negev desert near the Gaza border, say the doctor and other medics from the Kamal Adwan raid are being held there.
Two Palestinian prisoners released this weekend from the facility said they saw Abu Safiya at the prison, and another former detainee said he heard Abu Safiya’s name being read out. CNN cannot independently verify their accounts. The Israeli military has not confirmed to CNN whether Abu Safiya is being held at the facility.
Hundreds of medical professionals are using the hashtag #FreeDrHussamAbuSafiyeh to decry Israel‘s capture and detention of him as well as calling for Israel to be held accountable for attacks on hospital facilities and medics.
The head of the World Health Organization called for the immediate release of Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, who was detained as Israeli forces raided the facility last week. Other human rights organizations, along with Abu Safiya’s family, have made the same demand.
Israel’s war on the enclave continued into 2024, killing 23,842 people and wounding 51,925 during this year alone, driving the grisly official death toll to 46,376, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza on 7 October 2023, 258 staff members from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees have lost their lives, and at least 650 attacks on Unrwa facilities have been recorded. Additionally, 20 Unrwa workers have been abducted by Israel.
Lazzarini condemned the ongoing violence, stating, “This cannot become the new standard, and impunity cannot become the new norm.” His remarks highlight the growing frustration over the global community’s lack of action in halting Israel’s aggression which has been widely described by human rights organisation as genocidal.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the war has left 45,541 Palestinians dead, some 11,000 are missing and believed to be under the rubble and at least 100,000 have been forced to flee Gaza as Israel’s campaign of destruction continues to devastate the enclave.
In the West Bank, Israeli attacks killed 835 Palestinians and injured 6,450 others.
(December 2, 2024)
We are working beyond our areas of specialization because we no longer have a qualified surgical team. We have called upon the world for protection for over 50 days but unfortunately there has been no response. I’m confounded by this world that claims to believe in humanity and democracy but does not respond. Not even the World Health Organization has any protection here.
The human mind cannot imagine all the death and body parts and blood that surround us around the clock…
Amnesty also highlighted the broader issue of Israeli detention practices, noting that since the onset of its military onslought in Gaza, Israel has detained hundreds of Palestinian healthcare workers without charge or trial. These workers, the organisation stated, have been subjected to torture, ill-treatment, and incommunicado detention.
„The international community, especially Israel’s allies, must act to end Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,“ Amnesty concluded, demanding the immediate release of all Palestinians arbitrarily detained, including healthcare workers. Hospitals and health workers, the organisation reiterated, are not legitimate targets.
Kamal Adwan was the last functioning hospital in North Gaza, as Israel continues to wall the region off from the rest of the Palestinian territory and from any kind of outside humanitarian assistance. Still, despite the resulting lack of resources and the increasing casualties, Abu Safiya managed to keep the hospital in Beit Lahia at least partially running ― expanding its bed capacity from 120 to 200, and regularly posting updates online to show the world what Kamal Adwan, its patients and its staff were enduring at the hands of the Israeli military.
Meanwhile in the West Bank, OCHA reported that as of Thursday Israeli military operations have killed 20 Palestinians over a 10-day period, including 12 deaths from airstrikes.
In Tulkarm refugee camp, a military operation caused significant infrastructure damage, with OCHA raising concerns over the repeated use of lethal, war-like tactics exceeding law enforcement standards.
OCHA also reported that 2024 marked the highest displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank since records began nearly two decades ago.
As of Tuesday, 4,706 Palestinians, including 1,949 children, have been displaced,
Here are some of the key figures:
– 1,413 Palestinian families wiped out, with 5,455 family members killed
– 17,818 children killed in Israeli attacks
– 12,287 women killed in Israeli strikes
– 238 newborns and 853 infants killed
– 35,060 children now living without one or both parents
– 44 people dead due to malnutrition and starvation
– Six deaths from extreme cold in displacement tents, including five babies
– 1,068 medical staff and 94 Civil Defence personnel killed
– 520 bodies retrieved from seven mass graves inside hospitals
– 216 shelter and displacement centres targeted
Timeline: The Israeli army’s offensive on Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, has stretched over 450 days since its latest escalation on Oct.7, 2023.
Rising casualties: The 30 fatalities recorded in the last 24 hours push the overall death toll to 45,514, while injuries have surpassed 108,000.
Das Kamal-Adwan-Krankenhaus sei die letzte größere Gesundheitseinrichtung im Norden des Küstenstreifens gewesen und sei nun außer Betrieb, teilte die WHO auf X mit. Erste Berichte deuteten darauf hin, dass einige wichtige Abteilungen bei der Razzia stark verbrannt und zerstört worden seien.
Patienten in mittelschwerem bis schwerem Zustand seien ins zerstörte und nicht funktionstüchtige Indonesische Krankenhaus verlegt worden. Die Weltgesundheitsorganisation mache sich „große Sorgen um ihre Sicherheit“, hieß es.
Israeli forces on Friday arrested Ahmed al-Kahlout, who serves as the director of Gaza‘s civil defence in the northern part of the enclave, according to Al Jazeera.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said Saturday that Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, was arrested by Israeli forces. The announcement comes a day after Israeli troops stormed the hospital, forcing many staff and patients outside to strip in winter weather, according to the ministry.
Israel’s army didn’t respond to questions about Dr. Abu Safiya.
Al Jazeera is reporting, citing medical sources, that several medical staff members were burned to death in the fires set by Israel‘s military in the Kamal Adwan Hospital on Friday.
Dec 28, 2024 #Gaza #GazaUnderAttack #FreeGaza
The Israeli military has stormed the last operating hospital in Northern Gaza – setting it on fire. Operating rooms in the Hospital and its emergency department were destroyed. 350 people – including all the patients and staff – have been forced to evacuate. Their location is unknown and contact with the facility has been lost.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reports.
Israeli soldiers stormed and burned a hospital in isolated northern Gaza after forcibly removing staff and patients on Friday, Health Ministry officials said. The Israeli military said the hospital was being used by Hamas fighters as a base, although it did not provide evidence.
Gaza‘s Health Ministry said Israeli troops set fires in several parts of Kamal Adwan Hospital, including the lab and surgery department.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops stormed one of the last hospitals operating in northern Gaza on Friday, igniting fires and forcing many staff and patients outside to strip in winter weather, the territory’s health ministry said.
At least 37 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, bringing the overall death toll since last year to 45,436, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Friday.
“The fate of everyone at the hospital is unknown to us,” said Yousef Abu al-Rish, the deputy health minister in the territory, who is based in southern Gaza. “We’ve tried to call them in every way possible and we haven’t been able to reach them.”
Mr. Abu al-Rish said that he last had phone contact with the hospital on Thursday night, when he was told that Israeli forces were bombarding the area and tanks were approaching the hospital.
The assault on Kamal Adwan comes a day after 50 Palestinians were killed in an air strike on a building in the hospital‘s grounds. At least five medical staff were killed in Thursday‘s attack, along with their wives, parents and children.
Kamal Adwan has been under a suffocating Israeli siege for more than two months, receiving little to no aid, medicine, food or fuel since Israel intensified it blockade on northern parts of the enclave.
Dec 27, 2024 – 12:06 am GMT+3
At least 50 Palestinians, including five staff, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza late Thursday.
Hossam Abu Safiya, head of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, said: „an Israeli strike resulted in five martyrs among the hospital staff.“
(December 19, 2024)
„What our medical teams have witnessed on the ground throughout this conflict is consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organizations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza,” Lockyear said. (…)
MSF calls on states, particularly Israel’s closest allies, to end their unconditional support for Israel and fulfill their obligation to prevent genocide in Gaza. Nearly a year ago, on January 26, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.” Israel has taken no meaningful action to comply with the court order. Instead, Israeli authorities continue to actively block MSF and other humanitarian organizations from providing lifesaving assistance to people trapped under siege and bombardment.
(December 19, 2024)
To All States
– Take all measures within their power to prevent genocide by Israeli authorities in Gaza by pressuring Israel to lift the blockade and comply with the orders of the International Court of Justice, including by discontinuing any military assistance and arms sales or transfers, imposing targeted sanctions, and reviewing bilateral deals and diplomatic relations.
– Publicly condemn war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other violations of human rights and international humanitarian law and the genocide convention committed by the Israeli authorities, and urge them to immediately halt those violations and crimes and cooperate with international judicial bodies, investigative mechanisms, and UN special procedures.
– Increase public and private pressure on the Israeli government to comply with international humanitarian law in the conduct of hostilities, and ensure the entry and safe distribution at scale throughout Gaza of adequate aid and provision of basic services.
– Demand that Israel implement UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions on Israel and Palestine, including all provisions relating to humanitarian aid delivery to the residents of Gaza and compliance with international humanitarian law.
– Review and possibly suspend bilateral agreements with Israel, such as the EU-Israel Association Agreement, whose review has been proposed by the Spanish and Irish governments.
– End all forms of support for and complicity in the atrocities being carried out by Israel, including suspending military assistance and arms transfers to the Israeli government so long as its forces commit serious rights abuses and war crimes against Palestinian civilians with impunity.
– Publicly support the ICJ’s work and its decisions as an independent judicial institution and press Israel to comply with the ICJ’s binding orders.
– Publicly support the work of the International Criminal Court across all situations under its jurisdiction, including the ongoing Palestine investigation, and render any assistance necessary to give effect to orders of the Court. Uphold the court’s independence and publicly condemn efforts to intimidate or interfere with its work, officials, and those cooperating with the institution.
– Support foreign domestic investigations and prosecutions under the principle of universal jurisdiction, as relevant and appropriate, of those credibly implicated in serious crimes in Gaza.
– The United States should immediately reverse its decisions to suspend funding to UNRWA and state clearly the intention to continue to fund the agency, and all states should urge Israeli authorities to reverse Israel‘s decisions to bar UNRWA from operating within Israel.
– Fund repairs of damaged and destroyed water and sanitation infrastructure, and press Israel to urgently allow the infrastructure to be repaired.
– Support the creation of an international mechanism to address reparation for Palestinians and an international register of damages.
– Call on Israeli authorities to allow water filtration systems, water tanks, and other materials needed to repair water infrastructure and to improve the water supply into Gaza.
– Support the United Nations to establish a plan that would ensure Palestinians have access to water at least equal to what Israel grants Israeli citizens, and pressure Israel to facilitate and contribute to the plan.
– Address long-standing impunity by Israeli authorities and Palestinian armed groups for serious crimes under international law.
To the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation
– Request access to Gaza in order to monitor and report publicly on the human rights situation regarding access to water and sanitation, including damage and destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure; obstruction of repairs and targeting of repair workers; restrictions on the entry of fuel; and the human rights impacts stemming from these actions.
To the International Criminal Court Prosecutor
– Investigate Israeli authorities’ actions and policies that have deprived the civilian population of Gaza of water, including as war crimes, as the crime against humanity of extermination, and as genocide.
(December 5, 2024)
To make a determination on genocide, Amnesty International first examined whether Palestinians in Gaza constitute part of a protected group under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention), that is a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. It then focused on three out of the five prohibited acts under the Genocide Convention: “killing members of the group”; “causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group”; and “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”. It finally examined whether Israel committed these acts with the specific “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, [the] group, as such”.
To this end, Amnesty International interviewed 212 people as part of its research. They included Palestinian victims, survivors and witnesses of air strikes, displacement, detention, the destruction of farms, homes and agricultural land, as well as individuals who faced the impact of Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid. Amnesty International also spoke with members of local authorities in Gaza, Palestinian healthcare workers and representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and UN agencies involved in the humanitarian response in Gaza.
Amnesty International complemented these interviews with its analysis of an extensive range of visual and digital evidence, including satellite imagery, video footage and photographs posted on social media or obtained directly by its researchers. It authenticated and, where possible, geolocated video footage and photographs. It reviewed an extensive collection of media reports, statements, reports and data sets published by UN agencies and humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza, as well as Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups. It reviewed statements by senior Israeli government and military officials and official Israeli bodies, including spokespersons of the Israeli military and the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a unit within Israel’s Ministry of Defense tasked with administering civilian matters in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) . Amnesty International also examined submissions made to and decisions taken by the Israeli Supreme Court as well as publicly available material relating to South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Despite its repeated attempts to engage with the Israeli authorities through information and meeting requests, the organization received no substantive answer to any of its letters sent between 30 October 2023 and 16 October 2024.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) agree that Israel is striving for extermination. It has not hidden its intent, and that intent is confirmed by its actions on the ground.
At least 23 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, pushing up the overall death toll since last year to 45,361, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Wednesday.
Graphic video emerged late on Sunday showing the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on Nuseirat camp in Gaza, where cats gathered to feast on the bodies of those killed just hours earlier.
(December 22, 2024)
Health authorities in Gaza confirmed that the Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli onslaught since October 7, 2023, has now exceeded 45,259, with an additional 107,627 individuals reported injured. The majority of the victims are women and children, the authorities said.
(December 19, 2024)
“They did not tell us how it would happen,” Bashar al-Mashadani, an RCA commander, told The Telegraph. “We were just told: ‘Everything is about to change. This is your moment. Either Assad will fall, or you will fall.’ But they did not say when or where, they just told us to be ready.”
In October, the US brought several other Sunni Muslim militias under the command of the RCA, swelling the force from 800 fighters to about 3,000. All of the fighters are armed by the US, and the US pays their salaries of $400 per month.
(December 18, 2024)
RCA fighters who captured the Russian-controlled Syrian air base on the outskirts of the town last week said they had been told to prepare for Assad’s possible fall in early November, nearly three weeks before the offensive began.
Until one month earlier, Capt Mashadani had been second-in-command of the Abu Khatab brigade. This small unit of 150 men was created by US Special Forces and trained by their British counterparts in Jordan until 2016, to hunt down Isis fighters near Deir ez-Zor, a city in eastern Syria.
Julani fought for al-Qaeda in Iraq against American soldiers during the Iraq War. He then founded al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, the al-Nusra Front. In recent years, he has attempted to soften his image by giving friendly interviews to Western journalists, often appearing in a suit and with a trimmed beard to obscure his jihadist ideology.
Leaf said of Julani after the meeting, who is also going by Ahmad al-Sharaa, “I heard him on his priorities, which are very much rooted in getting Syria on the road to economic recovery.”
“We’ve been hearing this for some time, some very pragmatic and moderate statements on various issues, from women’s rights to protection to equal rights for all communities,” she added. “It was a good first meeting. We will judge by deeds, not just by words.”
At least 21 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, bringing the overall death toll since last year to 45,227, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Saturday.
A ministry statement added that some 107,573 others were injured in the ongoing assault.
„Als Gegenleistung für ihre Unterstützung und ihr Geld, so sagte mir der Israeli, würden die Vereinigten Staaten der saudischen Führung ein erweitertes Verteidigungsabkommen anbieten, das Saudi-Arabien in ihren nuklearen Schutzschirm einbeziehen würde – für den Fall, dass der Iran, Israels letzter verbliebener Feind, in den Besitz einer Atombombe gelangen sollte. “
(…)
„Der Israeli sagte mir, dass das saudische Paket einen zusätzlichen Anreiz enthält: Die Saudis würden wegschauen, wenn die Israelis Bombenangriffe durchführen, einschließlich der Bombardierung militärischer Ziele im zerrissenen Syrien, und würden Israel Zugang zu einem Flugplatz innerhalb der saudischen Grenzen gewähren. Auf diese Weise könnten israelische Bomben, die zumeist von den Vereinigten Staaten geliefert werden, innerhalb von Minuten, nicht Stunden, auf wichtige iranische Ziele abgefeuert werden.“
(December 16, 2023)
Israeli leaders believed that Hamas was more interested in governing than fighting. By the time the agents discovered the ledgers in 2018, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was encouraging the government of Qatar to deliver millions of dollars to the Gaza Strip. He gambled that the money would buy stability and peace.
Mr. Levy recalled briefing Mr. Netanyahu personally in 2015 about the Hamas portfolio.