By Abdul Adil
(AA, Al Jazeera, NNA, Wafa, The Muslim News):
GAZA
At least 88 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, bringing the overall death toll since October 2023 to 45,805, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Sunday.
A ministry statement added that some 109,064 others were injured in the ongoing assault.
“Israeli forces killed 88 people and injured 208 others in five 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.
At least eight Palestinians were killed and several others injured in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, medics said.
Four people lost their lives and several others were injured in Israeli shelling of a group of civilians in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, a medical source said.
Another Palestinian was killed in Israeli bombardment in the same town, he added.
The Civil Defense Agency said the body of a Palestinian was recovered and several people were injured after an Israeli strike that reduced a home to rubble in the southern city of Khan Younis.
Another Palestinian was killed in a drone strike in the Shabura refugee camp in central Rafah in southern Gaza, he added.
Civil defense crews also recovered the body of a Palestinian man after an Israeli strike in northern Gaza, the agency said.
Artillery shelling also targeted northwestern Rafah in southern Gaza and the western and northern parts of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, witnesses said.
No information about casualties was not yet available.
Meanwhile, another baby in Gaza has died of hypothermia – the eighth such death amid the Israeli genocide in the enclave.
Two Palestinians were also injured when Israeli fighter jets hit a home near a mosque in Al-Tuffah neighborhood in Gaza City, another medical source said.
According to witnesses, Israeli army forces demolished several residential buildings in the southern and northern parts of Gaza City.
Nearly 1,000 mosques were damaged in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip last year, Palestinian authorities said on Sunday.
In a statement, the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs said 815 Muslim worship places were entirely destroyed and 151 others partially damaged.
The ministry said 19 cemeteries and three churches were also destroyed in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in 2024.
In the occupied West Bank, the ministry recorded 256 settler intrusions into the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem last year.
According to the ministry, some 2,567 illegal settlers forced their way into the mosque complex to celebrate the week-long Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which was marked from Dec. 25 to Jan. 2.
The ministry also documented Israeli attacks on 20 mosques in the occupied West Bank.
WEST BANK
Palestinian teen was killed, and two others were injured by Israeli army gunfire during a military raid on the city of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank on Sunday evening.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said in a brief statement that 17-year-old Mutaz Madani was shot dead by the Israeli forces in Askar refugee camp in Nablus.
Earlier, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society stated that its crew in Nablus received an individual with a “live gunshot wound to the chest in Askar refugee camp in Nablus.”
It said that the injured was person succumbed to his wounds in hospital.
In a statement, the Palestinian Health Ministry said earlier that the injured individuals were transported to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus, where their condition was described as “stable.”
Israeli forces assaulted on Sunday several Palestinian farmers, beating them up and preventing them from plowing their lands in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, according to a local activist.
Activist Osama Makhamra said Israeli forces assaulted several farmers in the Masafer Yatta area and prevented them from plowing their lands and planting them with winter crops.
Furthermore, the forces damaged the tires of three agricultural tractors to prevent farmers from continuing their work on land threatened with confiscation by Israel.
Israeli occupation forces demolished on Sunday two water harvesting ponds used for agricultural purposes in the village of Furush Beit Dajan, east of Nablus, according to local sources.
Sources reported that Israeli forces, accompanied by a bulldozer, stormed the village of Furush Beit Dajan and demolished two water harveting ponds belonging to local residents.
According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, Israeli forces stormed the Khillat al-Amoud area east of Nablus, firing live ammunition, sound bombs, and tear gas, resulting in injuries.
Five Palestinians were injured on Sunday when an Israeli military vehicle rammed into their car in the occupied West Bank, local media said.
A car carrying five teachers was hit by a military vehicle near the village of Ein al-Beida in the northern Jordan Valley, the state news agency Wafa reported.
The injured teachers were rushed to hospital for medical attention, the broadcaster said.
Separately, illegal Israeli settlers chopped down olive trees in the town of Battir west of Bethlehem in the West Bank.
Zaki al-Batta, a former mayor of Battir, said 12 olive trees were cut in the Al-Khammar area, marking the fourth attack on the area in recent days.
Batta explained that the illegal settlers vandalized the fence of the targeted land, and cut the trees near the Nahal Haletz settlement outpost.
In the nearby town of Nahalin, illegal settlers established a new settlement outpost on the lands of the Ein Faris area west of the town and erected two tin houses (barracks) for livestock, Wafa said, citing the mayor of Nahalin, Jamal Najajra.
Najajra warned that the outpost will deny Palestinian farmers and shepherds access to their lands in the Ein Faris area, which spans approximately 2,000 dunams.
Settlers established on Sunday a new pastoral illegal outpost on Palestinian land in the town of Nahalin west of Bethlehem, according to a local official.
The head of the Nahalin Municipal Council, Jamal Najajra, reported that a group of settlers set up two large sheds for raising livestock in the Ain Fares area, west of Nahalin, to establish a pastoral outpost there as a prelude to creating a larger settler outpost.
He pointed out that this arbitrary action will prevent farmers and shepherds from accessing their land in the Ain Fares area, which covers about 2,000 dunums of land.
He also noted that the said area has been subjected to repeated attacks by settlers from the illegal colony of Beitar Illit, including the dumping of sewage onto Palestinian land, which has caused crop damage and water contamination.
Earlier today, settlers set up a new illegal outpost on lands belonging to Palestinian citizens in the village of Qaryout, south of Nablus.
Israeli settlers bulldozed on Sunday privately-owned Palestinian lands near the village of Mukhmas northeast of occupied Jerusalem, according to local sources and eyewitnesses.
Sources reported that a group of colonists began bulldozing the lands early this morning, targeting lands close to the village of Mukhmas.
To be noted, the “Sde Yonatan” outpost, built illegally by settlers on land belonging to the village of Mukhmas and situated next to the illegal “Ma’ale Mikhmas” colony, has become a base for ongoing attacks targeting Palestinian properties and farmland in the area.
LEBANON
The Israeli army has committed nine violations of the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, bringing the total to 392 breaches since the agreement took effect on November 27, 2024, Lebanon’s government has said.
Israeli bulldozers carried out operations inside Lebanese territory on the outskirts of the border town of ad-Dhahira in the Tyre district of the South Governorate, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).
The agency added that the army detonated explosions in the towns of ad-Dhahira and Tayr Harfa following a morning explosion at the Tayr Harfa triangle.
An Israeli drone reportedly flew at low altitudes over Tyre and its surroundings, particularly above the city’s harbour and port.
In the area between the towns of Tayr Harfa, al-Jebbayn and Chihine, the Israeli army carried out demolitions of several houses, as well as in the town of Naqoura, the news agency reported.
The Israeli army also demolished houses on the outskirts of the town of Aitaroun, with loud explosions heard in the western sector of the Tyre district.
Additionally, the agency said that the Israeli army conducted demolitions and set fire to homes in the town of Taybeh in the Marjayoun district.
YEMEN
The Yemeni Houthi [Ansar Allah] group said Sunday that the Americans had carried out three airstrikes on their stronghold city of Saada in northwestern Yemen.
“The American-British aggression aircraft launched three raids in eastern Saada,” reported Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah TV.
The channel gave no further details about the location of the strikes or their consequences, and there was no immediate comment from the US or Britain.
Saada, considered the Houthi group’s main stronghold, shares a land border with Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis, in solidarity with Gaza, since October 2023, have targeted Israeli cargo ships or ones linked with Tel Aviv in the Red Sea with missiles and drones, vowing to continue operations until the attacks on the enclave end.
Since the beginning of 2024, a coalition led by the US has been carrying out airstrikes that it said target Houthi locations in Yemen in response to the group’s Red Sea attacks. They have been occasionally met with retaliation from the Houthis.
[Photo: Relatives mourn as bodies of their dear ones killed by Israeli army’s indiscriminate bombings on Nuseirat Refugee camp in Gaza City, are brought to Al-Awda Hospital on January 5, 2025. Photojournalist: Moiz Salhi/AA]
