By Abdul Adil
(AA, Al Jazeera, Wafa, The Muslim News):
GAZA
At least 40 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip over the last 24 hours, bringing the overall death toll since last year to 44,875, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Friday.
A ministry statement added that some 106,454 others have been injured so far in the ongoing assault, now in its second year.
“Israeli forces killed 40 people and injured 98 others in three massacres of families in the last 24 hours,” the ministry said.
“Many people are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads, with rescuers unable to reach them,” it added.
Four Palestinians were killed, and several others were injured on Friday afternoon when Israeli occupation forces bombed a group of civilians west of Gaza City.
Medical sources confirmed that the four victims were killed as a result of an Israeli airstrike that hit a group of people near the Italian Complex in the Al-Nasr neighborhood of western Gaza City.
WAFA correspondent reported that one of the victims was a disabled man who had previously suffered an injury and had his leg amputated. He had been sitting outside in the sun seeking warmth when the strike hit.
Several other civilians were injured in the attack and were transferred to the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in the city for treatment.
Medical sources told Anadolu that three Palestinians were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit a tent housing displaced members of the Jabour family in the Jouret Al-Lout area of the southern city of Khan Younis.
In the central Gaza Strip, a medical source confirmed the death of a Palestinian in an Israeli airstrike on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp.
Eyewitnesses stated that Israeli airstrikes targeted civilians near the Women’s Association in the Nuseirat camp, resulting in multiple fatalities and injuries.
Medics also confirmed injuries from an airstrike on a home near Ahmad Yassin Mosque in the same area.
In northern Gaza, Israeli forces continued sporadic bombardments across the Jabalia camp and Beit Lahia.
Medical sources reported that two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike south of Gaza City.
Separately, a medical source reported that an Israeli airstrike hit a gathering in Gaza City’s Al-Daraj neighborhood, killing four Palestinians and injuring others.
Another strike targeted civilians near the municipal park in the western neighborhood of Al-Rimal, also killing four Palestinians and leaving several injured, according to the same source.
Meanwhile, Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, said Friday that it seized three Israeli drones conducting intelligence operations in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza Strip.
In a statement, Al-Qassam said its fighters successfully captured “three Zionist quadcopter drones” while they were on reconnaissance missions in the Al-Jeninah neighborhood east of Rafah.
In recent months, the Israeli military has increasingly deployed quadcopter drones for operations, including targeted killings, launching grenades, and issuing evacuation warnings.
Separately, the movement reported that its fighters targeted Israeli forces advancing in the Al-Bareed area of Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, using heavy mortar shells.
WEST BANK
Another Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli forces on Friday in the southern West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
A ministry statement said that Mohammad Ahmad Suleiman, 32, shot by Israeli forces in the town of Beit Awwa, was taken to Dura Governmental Hospital south of Hebron.
A young man with special disabilities was shot and killed on Friday evening during an Israeli military incursion into the town of Beit Awwa west of Hebron, in the southern occupied West Bank, according to a local official.
Muhammad Rabi, the director of Dura Governmental Hospital, said the young man, who was identified as Mohammed Ahmed Maslameh, 23, was brought to the emergency department with critical gunshot wounds to the chest, however, he succumbed to his injuries shortly after.
Local sources said that the occupation forces stormed the town, amid the indiscriminate firing of live bullets toward residents, shooting and killing the disabled young man.
Over the past few years, the Israeli military has conducted regular raids in the West Bank, which have escalated with the beginning of the war on Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023. Palestinians have also been violently attacked by illegal Israeli settlers.
At least 812 Palestinians have since been killed and over 6,450 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces have arrested at least three children during a raid on Burqa village east of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.
Local sources told Wafa that an Israeli force stormed the village and detained children, including Amin Damous, 13, after raiding their familes’ homes.
Last year, Save the Children said in a report that Palestinian minors in Israel’s “military detention system face physical and emotional abuse”.
Israeli forces detained a Palestinian young man on Friday evening after assaulting him in the Old City of Hebron, according to a local activist.
Activist Aref Jaber said Israeli forces stopped a Palestinian in the Jaber neighborhood, violently beat him and then transferred him to a nearby detention camp.
The activist, a resident of the Jaber neighborhood, noted that Israeli forces regularly stop young men in the area, search their phones and fabricate reasons to assault or detain them.
Nine incidents were documented this week in which young men were stopped, assaulted and detained by the Israeli forces after their phones were confiscated.
He expressed serious concerns about the escalating violence by Israeli forces and colonists against Palestinian residents in the Old City and its surrounding neighborhoods.
Israeli forces also closed the Al-Shuhada Street checkpoint, which leads to the Tel Rumeida area, barring residents from entering or exiting the area.
Israeli occupation forces raided the village of Nabi Saleh, northwest of Ramallah, on Friday afternoon, and assaulted local Palestinian residents, according to local sources.
The sources informed WAFA that Israeli forces stormed the village, firing stun grenades at local citizens and their homes. They stopped a vehicle carrying two young men, detained them, and physically assaulted them, causing bruises, before releasing them later.
This raid is part of the ongoing Israeli military assaults targeting Palestinian cities, towns and villages across the West Bank.
In addition Israeli forces Friday evening raided the village of Umm Safa northwest of Ramallah, restricting movement and conducting searches across the area, according to a local official.
Marwan Sabah, the head of Umm Safa Village Council, said Israeli forces stormed the village shortly after the Friday noon prayers and prevented the movement of residents.
Forces stopped and searched residents’ vehicles, and took over the rooftop of a house in the center of the village, turning it into a military observation point.
YEMEN
Yemen’s Houthi [Ansarallah] group said Friday that it carried out three military operations targeting sites in central and southern Israel using drones, according to the group’s military spokesperson.
Speaking during a large solidarity demonstration for Gaza in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, Yahya Saree said in a statement the first two drone strikes targeted a military site in Ashkelon in southern Israel and another in Jaffa in central Israel.
He stated that the drones successfully bypassed Israeli interception systems and hit their intended targets.
Additionally, Saree claimed a joint operation with Iran-backed Iraq’s Islamic Resistance targeted strategic sites in southern Israel with drones.
The statement did not provide details about the nature of the targets in the three operations.
As of yet, the Iraqi resistance group has not commented on the Houthi statement, though they occasionally launch drones toward Israel in solidarity with Gaza.
No comment has been issued by Israel regarding the strikes.
SYRIA
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed the Israeli army on Friday to remain stationed in the buffer zone on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon during the winter months following its occupation of the area on Dec. 8, the day anti-regime forces marched into Damascus, forcing Bashar al-Assad to flee to Russia.
“Due to what is happening in Syria, there is a huge security importance to our holding of the Hermon peak,” Katz said in a statement.
Everything must be done to ensure the Israeli army’s preparations in the area, allowing the troops to stay in the harsh weather conditions, he added.
The decision to extend the army’s stay in the occupied zone came after Katz, Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, and other military officials met late Thursday to assess the situation in Syria.
Israeli army forces have entered 2-10 kilometers deep within the demilitarized buffer zone along the border with Syria, an Israeli source, who preferred to remain unnamed, told Anadolu.
He, however, declined to specify the Syrian villages in the buffer zone where the Israeli forces are deployed for “security reasons.”
[Photo: Palestinian children try to get food among the rubbles of demolished buildings under the difficult conditions due to Israeli attacks in Khan Yunis, Gaza on December 13, 2024. Photojournalist: Abed Rahim Khatib/AA]
