By Abdul Adil
(AA, Al Jazeera, NNA, Wafa, The Muslim News):
GAZA
At least 12 Palestinians, including children and women, were killed throughout Gaza Strip on New Year’s Day in Israeli attacks bringing the overall death toll since October 2023 to 45,553, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Wednesday.
A ministry statement added that some 108,379 others were injured in the ongoing assault.
“Israeli forces killed 12 people and injured 41 others in two massacres of families in the last 48 hours,” the ministry said.
A fighter jet struck a residential apartment in the Shejaiya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City, leaving six people dead, including two women and three children, a medical source said.
An Israeli drone hit a home in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, killing a woman and child and injuring several people, according to another medical source.
Fifteen people also lost their lives and several others were injured, including children, in an airstrike on a house in the northern town of Jabalia, a medical source said.
In southern Gaza, several people were injured in an airstrike on a home in the al-Fukhari area in eastern Khan Younis.
An Israeli drone hit a home in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, killing a woman and child and injuring several people, the source said.
Israeli artillery also shelled the eastern and northern parts of the Bureij and Nuseirat camps, but no information was yet available about casualties.
Fifteen people also lost their lives and several others were injured, including children, in an airstrike on a house in the northern town of Jabalia, another medical source said.
An Israeli drone hit a home in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, killing a woman and child and injuring several people, the source said.
Israeli forces opened gunfire on the neighborhoods of Al-Sabra and Zeitoun in the city’s southern and southeastern areas, according to witnesses.
In the central Gaza Strip, helicopter gunships opened fire toward the northeastern areas of the Nuseirat refugee camp as military vehicles advanced on the camp’s northwestern areas.
According to witnesses, loud explosions were heard in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, amid blowing-up operations of homes and buildings by the Israeli army.
WEST BANK
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Tuesday reported the “highest number” of illegal Israeli settler-linked incidents in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The report covers incidents “since the office began keeping records almost two decades ago,” it said in a statement.
OCHA noted that “around 1,400 such incidents – including physical assaults, arson attacks, raids on Palestinian communities and the destruction of fruit trees – have resulted in Palestinian casualties, damage to property, or both.”
“This is nearly four incidents per day,” said OCHA.
It also added that 12% of internally displaced Palestinians in the occupied West Bank “have cited settler violence and access restrictions as the main reasons that forced them out of their homes or communities.”
“This year has also marked the second highest number of Palestinian fatalities in the West Bank since OCHA’s records began, following 2023, which was the highest,” said OCHA.
The statement further reported that more than 480 Palestinians, including children, were killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
“OCHA notes that most of them were killed by Israeli forces,” it said.
The Hebron municipality in the occupied West Bank has warned of excavation and extension works by Israeli forces on the Ibrahimi Mosque.
In a statement on Facebook, the municipality said the actions were part of Israel’s “ongoing attempts to threaten by stripping the municipality of its powers in the area”.
“These Israeli attacks come as part of a series of continuous violations aimed at demolishing the Holy Mosque of Ibrahim and changing its Islamic and historical landmarks … these actions reflect the sleeping intention to impose new conditions on the ground and obscuring the Palestinian identity of the site,” the municipality said.
A 16-year-old was shot in the foot with live bullets as the Israeli military raided the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian news agency Wafa has reported.
A second person, identified as a 26-year-old, was shot in the thigh. Both were transferred to the hospital.
Local sources told Wafa that Israeli special forces surrounded a cafe in the Old City, leading to clashes. The owner of the cafe, Ahmad Qadri, was arrested alongside a second resident whose identity has not yet been confirmed.
Palestinian young man was critically injured this evening after Israeli forces opened fire on his vehicle west of Ramallah, according to Palestinian security sources.
The sources told WAFA that Israeli forces fired at a car near the villages of Deir Qaddis and Ni’lin, wounding the driver severely. The Israeli military claimed that the driver had allegedly carried out a ramming attack that injured a female soldier.
Following the incident, Israeli occupation forces sealed off several villages in the area with iron gates and set up numerous military checkpoints, significantly disrupting the movement of residents.
Hundreds of Israeli settlers Wednesday stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied city of Jerusalem, according to local sources.
They said that approximately 630 Jews under the protection of Israeli forces, barged their way into the compound and performed rituals and tours inside, at a time when theIsraeli forces denied Palestinians access to the Old City of Jerusalem and the mosque compound.
Israeli settlers Wednesday chased Palestinian shepherds and destroyed olive groves in Masafer Yatta, south of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, according to a local activist.
Osama Makhamra said that settlers chased shepherds, all identified as members of the al-Hamamdeh family, and denied them access to pastures in the Bir Ma‘in area of Masafer Yatta.
Meanwhile, settlers grazed their livestock on Palestinians’ crops and sabotaged several olive trees belonging to members of the Na‘amin family.
Masafer Yatta is a collection of almost 19 hamlets which rely heavily on animal husbandry as the main source of livelihood.
Located in Area C of the West Bank, under full Israeli administrative and military control, the area has been subjected to repeated Israeli violations by settlers and soldiers targeting their main source of living – livestock.
It has been designated as a closed Israeli military zone for training since 1980s and accordingly referred to as Firing Zone 918.
Israeli violations against the area include demolition of animal barns, homes and residential structures. Issuance of construction permits by Israel to local Palestinians in the area is non-existent.
Israeli occupation forces Wednesday demolished a house in al-Walaja village, northwest of the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, according to a municipal source.
Khader al-‘Araj, head of al-Walaja Village Council, said that the Israeli forces escorted a bulldozer into the village, where the heavy machinery tore down a 60-square-meter house belonging to Nisreen Khaled Abu Rizeq, a female, displacing five people.
He added that the occupation forces had demolished Abu Rizeq’s house for the first time on July 15, 2024.
LEBANON
An Israeli drone flew over the Lebanese capital of Beirut and the southern city of Tyre on Wednesday, in a new violation of a cease-fire deal between Lebanon and Israel, Lebanese media said.
The state news agency NNA said the drone was spotted flying over Beirut and its suburbs to Tyre city and its surrounding areas.
The broadcaster provided no further information.
Separately, Israeli soldiers set fire to multiple homes in the Al-Baladiah neighborhood of Aitaroun, in southern Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil district, NNA reported later in the evening.
The latest breach brought the number of Israeli violations to 338 since the cease-fire came into force on Nov. 27, according to an Anadolu tally based on figures released by the Lebanese authorities.
Under the cease-fire terms, Israel is required to withdraw its forces south of the Blue Line—a de facto border—in phases, while the Lebanese army is to deploy in southern Lebanon within 60 days.
Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem said Wednesday that the Lebanese state is responsible for implementing and ensuring compliance with the cease-fire agreement with Israel.
In a recorded speech to a conference in the Iranian capital Tehran, Qassem stressed that Lebanon, as the party that negotiated the agreement, must take responsibility for addressing any violations by Israel.
YEMEN
The Houthi [Ansar Allah] group claimed on Wednesday to have shot down a US drone in central Yemen.
Military spokesman Yahya Saree said a US MQ-9 drone was intercepted “while carrying out hostile missions” over Marib province.
He said the drone was shot down by “a domestically made surface-to-air missile.”
The spokesman said the drone was the second to have been downed in 72 hours and the 14th since last year.
There was no immediate US comment on the Houthi claim.
On Saturday, the Houthi group said it shot down a US MQ-9 drone over Al-Bayda province in central Yemen
The Yemeni Houthi group has said it carried out 27 military operations against Israeli targets in December 2024 in solidarity with Palestinians who are facing an Israeli genocidal war in Gaza.
A statement by the local 26 September website, an outlet linked to the Houthi-run Defense Ministry, said late Tuesday that the group’s attacks were “in response to the Zionist genocidal war on Gaza and the Zio-American attacks on Yemen.”
The report claimed that the group attacked military and vital targets in Israel, using 11 hypersonic and ballistic missiles, and dozens of combat drones.
US warplanes launched 12 airstrikes on the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Tuesday, the Houthi group said.
The Houthi-run Al-Masirah TV said the attacks targeted the al-Ardi Complex, which houses the Defense Ministry headquarters, and the 22nd May Complex, which houses the Information Ministry premises in central Sanaa.
No information was provided about casualties or damage from the strikes.
The US army says it carried out a number of strikes on Yemeni territory, hitting targets belonging to the Houthis, who have launched several attacks on US military ships and on Israeli territory in recent days.
Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam condemned the US airstrikes as “a blatant violation of the sovereignty of an independent state and an overt support for Israel to continue its crimes of genocide in Gaza.”
The attacks came hours after the Houthis fired two ballistic missiles at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv and a power plant in southern Jerusalem.
The Houthis also targeted US aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman with drones and cruise missiles.
[Photo: Palestinians sheltering in tents in the Mawasi area struggle with rain and cold weather as the tents of Palestinians who were forcibly displaced due to Israeli attacks are flooded by the torrential downpour in Khan Yunis, Gaza on January 01, 2025. Photojournalist: Abed Rahim Khatib/AA]
