By Abdul Adil
(AA, Al Jazeera, NNA, Wafa, The Muslim News):
GAZA
At least 30 Palestinians were killed and injured 84 in last 24 hours in Israeli indiscriminate airstrikes against the southern and northern Gaza Strip.
Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, bringing the overall death toll since last year to 44,532, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Wednesday.
A ministry statement added that some 105,538 others have been injured in the ongoing assault.
“Israeli forces killed 30 people and injured 84 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.
At least 20 Palestinians were killed, and dozens injured as a result of helicopter airstrikes on gatherings of displaced people and food storage facilities in the Al-Mawasi of Khan Younis, a medical source told Anadolu.
The source confirmed that the victims “were charred remains and headless bodies.”
Meanwhile, more Palestinians were killed later on in the evening.
In a separate attack, 10 Palestinians were killed and more than 50 injured in an airstrike that targeted a house in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northern Gaza City, the Gaza Civil Defense told Anadolu.
Warplanes bombed a residential home belonging to the Al-Dalo family in the Al-Nafaq area, causing significant damage to nearby homes, it added.
The civil defense also noted that its teams are working to rescue those who are injured and retrieve bodies from the targeted homes.
Despite being designated as a “humanitarian safe zone” by the Israeli army, Al-Mawasi has witnessed dozens of deadly Israeli airstrikes in the course of the onslaught against Gaza.
Witnesses said a drone shelled a group of civilians in Block C in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
Five people lost their lives in the attack, including four children, the sources said.
Israeli fighter jets also hit a home in the northern town of Beit Lahia, leaving five people dead, the source added.
Another medical source said that two people were killed in another Israeli strike on the Al-Zuhur neighborhood in in the southern city of Rafah.
The bodies of 10 Palestinians were also recovered after an Israeli airstrike near the Abu Yousef El-Najjar Hospital in eastern Rafah on Tuesday, the source added.
Fatalities were reported in an Israeli drone strike in western Gaza City, according to witnesses.
Health authorities have yet to give an exact death toll from the attack.
Several people were also injured in Israeli shelling on the Salah Al-Din route in northern Gaza.
An Israeli airstrike on the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City Wednesday evening killed 10 Palestinians, according to local sources.
They said that Israeli fighter jets pounded a house belonging to the ad-Dalu family in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, claiming the lives of at least 10 civilians and injuring others.
Five civilians were killed in a preliminary toll, most of them children, this morning, in the bombing of a gathering of citizens in the Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip.
Medical sources reported that five Palestinian citizens, including four children, were killed in the occupation’s bombing of a gathering of citizens in front of a food stall and a local bakery east of the Nuseirat camp.
According to medical sources, 18 Palestinians, including children and women, were killed in Israeli bombing of the central and southern Gaza Strip since dawn today, according to Wafa News Agency.
Meanwhile, Palestinian resistance group Hamas claimed Wednesday to have killed two Israeli soldiers in an attack in the northern Gaza Strip.
The group’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said its snipers shot dead two Israeli soldiers in central Jabalia in northern Gaza.
The group said its fighters also targeted a personnel carrier and three Merkava tanks with anti-tank shells and an explosive device in the towns of Jabalia and Beit Lahia.
There was no comment yet from the Israeli army on the claim.
WEST BANK
An elderly Palestinian was beaten to death by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, local media said.
Sheikh Atef Malik Derieh died after he was assaulted by Israeli soldiers in the town of Aqraba, south of Nablus, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
“Occupation soldiers badly beat the elderly man as he was on his land near a settlement road in the town,” municipal chief Salah Jab told Wafa.
“He sustained serious injuries and died of his wounds at the hospital,” he added.
At least 22 more Palestinians were detained in Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, according to prisoners’ affairs groups.
A woman and two children were among the detainees in the raids that targeted several towns in the occupied territory, including Hebron, Bethlehem, Qalqilya, Tubas, Nablus, and Ramallah, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.
“The raids were marked by abuse, threats against detainees and their families, and acts of vandalism and destruction on citizens’ homes,” it added.
The new arrests brought the number of Palestinians detained by the Israeli army in the West Bank since October last year to over 11,900, including those who were released after being arrested, according to Palestinian figures.
The figure does not include those arrested from the Gaza Strip whose numbers are estimated to be in the thousands.
Meanwhile, illegal Israeli settlers on Wednesday morning attacked Palestinian towns in the northern occupied West Bank, vandalizing and setting ablaze people’s properties.
According to the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, the settlers from the Yitzhar settlement attacked the Huwara town, south of Nablus city, and burned a house and two cars.
It added that another group of illegal settlers attacked the Beit Furik town, east of Nablus, and also set fire to an under-construction house, a market and a car.
The news agency reported that the Civil Defense extinguished three fires caused by the settlers.
According to Palestinian sources, Israeli settlers staged nearly 1,500 attacks over the past years against Palestinians, their land, and properties across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
LEBANON
At least 4,047 people have been killed and 15,983 others injured in Israeli attacks in Lebanon since October last year, Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad said on Wednesday.
“Before Sept. 15, the death toll stood at 645 people, while 1,983 others were injured,” he told a press conference in Beirut.
“After this date, 3,402 more people were killed and more than 14,000 others injured,” the minister added.
A cease-fire deal between Lebanon and Israel took effect last week in the hope of ending over 14 months of fighting between the Israeli army and Hezbollah.
Under the terms of the cease-fire, Israel is to withdraw its forces south of the Blue Line de facto border in a phased manner while the Lebanese army deploys its forces in southern Lebanon within a maximum of 60 days.
Implementation of the agreement is to be overseen by the US and France, but details on enforcement mechanisms remain unclear.
Lebanon has reported over 120 Israeli violations of the cease-fire since the deal came into force on Nov. 27.
According to an Anadolu tally based on Health Ministry figures, at least 14 people were killed and 13 others injured in Israeli attacks since last week.
The Lebanese government confirmed Wednesday that Hezbollah agreed to allow the army to extend its authority in the southern regions of the country.
The government emphasized that the army is the entity authorized to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701 in line with a cease-fire agreement with Israel.
Information Minister Ziad Makary said at a news conference following a Cabinet meeting in Beirut that the Cabinet would convene next Saturday in the southern city of Tyre. He noted that the army commander would attend to present the military’s plan for deployment in the south.
Asked about Hezbollah ministers’ willingness to accept the army’s deployment and authority under the cease-fire agreement, Makary responded: “Of course, this is an agreement endorsed by the Cabinet, and it has the approval of the Lebanese government and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.”
Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem confirmed in a video statement last Friday that coordination between his group and the army “will be at a high level to implement the cease-fire agreement.”
“Our perspective on the Lebanese army is that it is a national army in both leadership and personnel, and it will deploy in the south in its homeland, which is our homeland, too,” he said.
Responding to a question about the army’s ability to deploy in the south, Makary said: “We have confidence in the army, which is tasked with implementing Resolution 1701 with the collective approval of the government, and there is no alternative.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that the cease-fire agreement between Israel and Lebanon is “holding” despite a series of incidents, with Beirut accusing Tel Aviv of committing over 100 violations since it was signed last week.
“The cease-fire is holding, and we’re using the mechanism that was established when any concerns have arisen about any alleged or purported violations,” Blinken told reporters after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.
[Photo: Palestinian Ellaham family, gathering around a fire to keep themselves warm, struggle with the cold weather conditions and food crisis after leaving their house and taking refuge in damage building to escape from Israeli attacks in Khan Yunis, Gaza on December 4, 2024. Photojournalist: Doaa Albaz/AA]
