By Abdul Adil
(AA, Al Jazeera, Wafa, NNA, The Muslim News):
GAZA
Israel is still attacking homes and schools across the Gaza Strip, killing and injuring several people just one day after dozens were massacred in a strike on the Nuseirat camp.
At least 55 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, bringing the overall death toll since last year to 44,930, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Saturday.
A ministry statement added that some 106,624 others were injured in the ongoing assault.
“Israeli forces killed 55 people and injured 170 others in four massacres of families in the last 24 hours,” the ministry said.
“Many people are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.
Dawn raids on Saturday killed four members of the Saadallah family in their home in Jabalia, two people in a school northeast of Gaza City and one person sheltering in a tent south of Khan Younis, Palestinian news agency Wafa said.
Later that day, the Israeli military killed seven people in a strike on Al-Majida Wasila School in the northern Al-Rimal neighbourhood west of Gaza City, according to Wafa.
The news agency also reported a drone attack on a group of civilians at the Jalaa Junction northwest of Gaza City, which killed one woman and injured several others. Another civilian was killed in an airstrike west of Al-Nuseirat camp.
A further five citizens were injured in a drone attack on the Al-Mawasi area west of Rafah city.
In northern Gaza, which has been under an even tighter siege over the past two months, Israeli forces blew up buildings and burned dozens of homes in and around Beit Lahiya while firing at Kamal Adwan Hospital, according to Wafa.
At least seven Palestinians, including a two-day-old infant, were killed on Saturday when an Israeli airstrike targeted a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense.
“Seven martyrs and 12 injured have been recovered from the rubble of al-Majda Waseela Secondary School, with casualties transferred to the Baptist Hospital and Shifa Hospital,” the Civil Defense said in a statement.
Among the victims was two-day-old infant Janan al-Ghurra, according to an Anadolu reporter on the ground.
According to eyewitnesses, the school was overcrowded with displaced Palestinians, many of whom had fled from the northern areas of Gaza.
In addition to housing displaced families, the school had been hosting makeshift classes for high school students, organized by local initiatives to prepare students for exams amidst the ongoing war.
Diab Al-Jarou, the mayor of Deir al-Balah city, was killed in the Israeli airstrike that targeted the municipality’s headquarters in the central Palestinian enclave, the Ministry of Local Government in Gaza said in a statement.
“With the deepest sorrow and heartfelt condolences, we mourn Diab Al-Jarou, the mayor of Deir Al-Balah city, along with a number of citizens who were martyred in an Israeli airstrike targeting the municipality headquarters,” it added.
Rescue operations are ongoing, with civilians using motorcycles, animal-drawn carts, and private vehicles to rush victims to medical facilities.
The Palestinian National Council (PNC) on Saturday described the Israeli bombing of the Deir Al-Balah municipality building in central Gaza and a school sheltering displaced people as a “blatant violation of all international laws and norms and a deliberate targeting of defenceless civilians.”
“What is happening in Gaza is a major humanitarian crime that reflects the brutality of the occupation and the world’s silence over the suffering of an oppressed and besieged people,” the Council (Palestine Liberation Organization Parliament) said in a statement.
The PNC noted that the bombing of the Deir Al-Balah municipality building and al-Majda Waseela Secondary School, where displaced people had sought refuge, was “a direct targeting of defenceless civilians, most of whom are women and children.”
At least 10 Palestinians were killed and scores of others injured in Israeli airstrikes on residential homes and a school sheltering displaced families in various areas across the Gaza Strip on Saturday.
In the North Gaza Governorate, medical sources reported that four Palestinians were killed and several others injured when an Israeli warplane struck a home in Jabalia Nazla.
Two more Palestinians sustained injuries when an Israeli airstrike hit a building in the same area, the sources added.
Additionally, an Israeli drone targeted Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, witnesses said.
In Gaza City, two Palestinians were killed, and several others injured when Israeli helicopters struck Yaffa School in the Tuffah neighbourhood, where displaced families were taking shelter, according to paramedics.
In central Gaza, Israeli forces destroyed buildings northwest of Nuseirat Camp, according to witnesses.
Artillery fire targeted northern areas of Nuseirat, eastern Maghazi Camp, and eastern Khan Younis in southern Gaza, they said.
Separately, the Palestinian Civil Defense Authority reported that rescue teams recovered the bodies of two victims near the Rimas Hall in the Khirbat al-Adas area, northeast of Rafah in southern Gaza.
In Khan Younis, medical sources said that two men from the Daghma family were killed in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a group of civilians in the east of the town of Abasan al-Jadida.
In a separate attack, one Palestinian was killed and several others were injured when Israeli forces bombed a group of civilians near the Abu Attaya roundabout east of the Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
The number of journalists killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, has soared to 195, a local organization said on Saturday.
“The number of journalist martyrs has risen to 195 following the martyrdom of journalist Mohammad Baalousha, a correspondent for Al-Mashhad Channel (a private Lebanese network based in Dubai), as a result of an Israeli airstrike on Gaza,” the Palestinian Journalists’ Forum said in a statement.
The NGO condemned “the international silence and failure to protect Palestinian journalists and ensure their ability to perform their professional duties in accordance with international laws and humanitarian conventions.”
Meanwhile, Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, said Saturday that the Israeli army bombed a location in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli hostages were held, confirming that the bombing was repeated to ensure their death.
Abu Obaida, the spokesperson for the group, said on Telegram: “The occupation army recently bombed a location where some enemy prisoners were present and repeated the bombing to ensure their death.”
“We have intelligence confirming that the enemy deliberately bombed the location with the aim of killing the prisoners and their guards,” Obaida noted.
He added: “Our fighters attempted to rescue the enemy prisoners and succeeded in retrieving one of them, whose fate remains unknown.”
Obaida held Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his government, and the Israeli army “fully responsible for this event and the lives of their prisoners.”
A video released by al-Qassam Brigades showed the bombed location and a person without clarifying whether they were killed or injured, with no facial features shown.
WEST BANK
The Israeli army detained at least 4 Palestinians in military raids in the occupied West Bank late Friday.
Soldiers arrested the Palestinians, one of them a child, during a raid in Hebron, according to the Palestinian news agency, Wafa.
Israeli soldiers closed off the entry and exit points at a checkpoint they established on Al-Shuhada Street in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood.
Additionally, in Nabi Saleh village near Ramallah, soldiers applied pressure by using sound bombs and arrested two young men who were reportedly beaten before being released.
In recent years, the Israeli military has conducted regular raids in the West Bank, which escalated with the beginning of the onslaught on the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023. Palestinians have also been violently attacked by illegal Israeli settlers.
At least 812 Palestinians have since been killed and more than 6,450 injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Israeli illegal settlers attacked Palestinian vehicles on the road connecting the cities of Ramallah and Nablus in the occupied West Bank on Saturday evening, according to Palestinian security sources.
The sources told WAFA that the settlers threw stones at the vehicles of Palestinian citizens near the illegal settlement of Eli, which is adjacent to the road.
In the same incident, a Palestinian man from the Salfit governorate was attacked by the settlers, causing bruises and injuries to him. He was later transported to the hospital for medical treatment.
Such attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian vehicles along this road have been frequent and ongoing.
Israeli occupation authorities on Saturday forced a Palestinian resident to demolish his storage facility and issued a demolition order for a mosque in the Silwan neighbourhood, located south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem.
Local sources reported that Israeli authorities compelled Youssef Al-Tawil, a Palestinian citizen, to demolish his storage facility, which had been standing for 43 years.
Additionally, the Israeli occupation authorities issued an order for the demolition of the Al-Isra Mosque in Silwan within 21 days and imposed a fine of 40,000 shekels.
Silwan, situated just one kilometre south of Al-Aqsa Mosque, is home to tens of thousands of Palestinians who face the ongoing threat of forced displacement due to Israel’s efforts to alter the demographic and geographic makeup of the area through settlement expansion and policies of Judaization.
A Palestinian youth was injured by Israeli occupation forces on Saturday evening during an Israeli military raid on the village of Al-Mughayir, northeast of Ramallah, according to Palestinian security sources.
The sources told WAFA that confrontations broke out between residents and Israeli forces in the village, during which Israeli soldiers fired live ammunition at the protesters. A 26-year-old man was shot in the shoulder and was later transported to the hospital, where his injury was described as moderate.
In a related incident, Israeli forces stormed the town of Turmus Ayya, northeast of Ramallah. No detentions or further confrontations were reported.
Israeli settlers seized about 25 cows east of Tubas city.
The head of the Al-Maleh village council, Mahdi Daraghmeh, reported that settlers seized 25 heads of cattle belonging to citizen Jamal Hamdan Daraghmeh near the village of Tayasir east of Tubas, and took the herd to the colonial outpost in the Al-Hamma area in the northern Jordan Valley.
Israeli occupation forces at dawn stormed the city of Hebron and the universities of Hebron and Palestine Polytechnic.
Security and local sources told WAFA that the occupation forces stormed the two universities and placed threatening flyers on campus to intimidate students.
LEBANON
The Israeli army announced Saturday that its air force had targeted rocket launch platforms in Lebanon, claiming they violated the cease-fire agreement between the two countries.
“An air force jet attacked rocket launchers in Lebanon that were loaded, ready to fire, and aimed at Israeli territory,” the Israeli army said in a statement.
The army further alleged that these platforms represented a breach of the cease-fire agreements but did not provide specific details about their locations.
The Israeli army also emphasized its commitment to the cease-fire terms, stating; “We remain dedicated to the agreements reached in Lebanon and continue to operate in southern Lebanon to address any threats against the State of Israel and its citizens.”
The Lebanon army has begun expanding its presence in southern Lebanon to assert the authority of the state and to ensure that no weapon exists without the legal framework, the country’s prime minister said on Saturday.
In a meeting with Arab ambassadors accredited in Italy, Najib Mikati said: “The primary challenge lies in holding Israel accountable for its violations of the cease-fire agreement and demanding the withdrawal of its forces from Lebanese territory,” according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s office.
“We are waiting for the implementation of these measures with American-French guarantees, but we do not see an Israeli commitment,” he added.
Lebanese authorities have reported around 220 Israeli violations of the cease-fire since the deal came into force on Nov. 27.
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.
The US and France are responsible for overseeing the agreement’s implementation, but details on enforcement mechanisms are unclear.
SYRIA
Israeli airstrikes targeted and destroyed approximately 20 sites belonging to the Information Technology (IT) Corps of Syria’s deposed regime, Israeli army radio reported on Saturday.
According to the report, Israeli warplanes conducted a series of attacks overnight, striking IT Corps locations equipped with advanced communication and electronic warfare systems.
These operations were carried out to prevent the technology from potentially falling into the hands of adversarial groups, the radio said.
The strikes targeted various locations, including Damascus, Sweida, Masyaf, Latakia, and Tartus.
The Israeli daily Maariv added that the Israeli army continues to dismantle remnants of the Syrian army.
“Israeli army operations against what remains of the Syrian military assets are ongoing,” the newspaper said.
A senior Israeli military official cited by the daily revealed that the decision to intensify strikes was made last week as it became clear that “Assad’s regime and its army were collapsing.”
“We aimed to destroy most of the Syrian army’s strategic assets to ensure they do not fall into the hands of Hezbollah or extremist factions among the rebels,” the official noted.
The destruction of Syrian air defence systems, the report added, gives the Israeli army enhanced freedom of operation, including potential missions in Iranian airspace.
[Photo: Near and dear ones of the Palestinians who were killed by Israeli attacks on Deir al-Balah Municipality Building, mourn as the dead bodies are brought to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital for burial in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on December 14, 2024. Photojournalist: Ashraf Amra/AA]
