By Abdul Adil
(AA, NNA, Al Jazeera, Wafa, The Muslim News):
LEBANON
Three civilians were killed in an Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, in the latest violation of a cease-fire deal between the two sides, Lebanese media said.
The fatalities occurred when a drone fired a guided missile at the Al-Awaini neighborhood in Bint Jbeil district, the state news agency NNA reported.
The strike marked the third Israeli attack on Bint Jbeil on Wednesday alone.
It came hours after one person was killed and another injured in a drone strike on a house in the Khillet al-Diraz area, between Aainata and Bint Jbei on Wednesday.
Another Israeli strike hit a small van on a road between Beit Lif and Srebbine in southern Lebanon, leaving one person dead.
At least 28 people have been killed and 30 others injured in Israeli attacks since the cease-fire between Lebanon and Israel came into force two weeks ago, according to Lebanese figures.
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.
GAZA
At least 47 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, bringing the overall death toll since last year to 44,805, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Wednesday.
A ministry statement added that some 106,257 others were injured in the ongoing assault.
“Israeli forces killed 47 people and injured 123 others in two massacres of families in the last 48 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.
Yet another Palestinian journalist was killed in an Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip, taking the overall death toll of Palestinians killed since last year to 193, a local organization said on Wednesday.
The Palestinian Journalists’ Forum identified the new victim as Eman Shanti, a broadcaster for the local Al-Aqsa Radio, after an Israeli strike on her family’s home in Gaza City.
The forum condemned “international silence and the failure to protect Palestinian journalists to allow them to carry out their professional duties in accordance with international laws and humanitarian conventions.”
A Palestinian woman and her two children were killed in an Israeli missile attack in the northern town of Beit Lahia on Wednesday, a medical source said.
The attack targeted the family outside the gate of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the town, the source added.
Witnesses said that an Israeli drone fired a missile into the family outside the medical facility.
At least 25 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on two houses in the northern and central Gaza Strip on Wednesday morning.
Eyewitnesses told Anadolu that the Israeli warplanes struck a three-story building near Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia area in the northern Gaza Strip, killing 18 Palestinians and completely destroying the building.
About 12 others are missing under the rubble, the witnesses added.
According to Wafa’s correspondent, Israeli fighter jets also bombed a house in the Nuseirat camp, killing four people and injuring at least 16 others, the agency said.
Israeli drone strikes targeted a group of civilians near Deir el-Balah Preparatory School, where displaced people are seeking refuge, which resulted in the killing of one civilian and the injury of several others, Wafa said.
A child was also killed in Israeli shelling that targeted a home in the al-Zawayda town in central Gaza, the agency reported.
In the central Gaza Strip, the Al-Awda Hospital said seven more people were killed and six others injured in an Israeli airstrike on the southwestern area of the Nuseirat refugee camp.
The hospital also published footage of medical teams trying to remove bodies from the struck house.
Eyewitnesses told Anadolu that an Israeli warplane struck and completely destroyed a house of the “Bayyoumi” family in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing seven people while two others are still missing.
At least four Palestinians were killed and 16 others injured in an Israeli airstrike in the central Gaza Strip on Wednesday, medics said.
In a statement, Al-Awda Hospital said the bodies of four people were transferred to the facility, while 16 others were injured in Israeli bombardment in the Nuseirat refugee camp.
The attack came as hundreds of Palestinians were forcibly displaced from the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza after an Israeli evacuation order.
Families fled on foot toward the western part of central Gaza and the southern city of Khan Younis, carrying only basic belongings and blankets, according to an Anadolu correspondent.
The displacement followed an Israeli military order for civilians to evacuate their areas in the camp citing rocket fire from the area.
Meanwhile, four Palestinian detainees died while being investigated by Israeli interrogators since the outbreak of the Gaza war last year, Israeli media said on Wednesday.
“Since the start of the war, at least four Palestinians have died during interrogations conducted by the Shin Bet security service,” Haaretz said.
“In at least one case, bruises were found on the detainee’s body,” it added.
According to the media outlet, in two cases, Israeli prosecutors found that there was no justification to open a criminal investigation against Shin Bet interrogators.
“The other two cases remain under review,” it added.
The dismissed cases included the death of Palestinian doctor Iyad al-Rantisi, who died six days after his detention in November last year.
Rantisi’s family was not officially informed of his death by Israeli authorities.
“The investigation into his death found that his body bore signs of bruising, raising suspicions of him being subjected to violence,” Haaretz said.
While medical reasons, including a heart attack, were given as the official cause of his death, the findings have fueled suspicions that the doctor’s injuries may have contributed to his demise.
The Shin Bet declined to disclose whether the other three deceased detainees were from Gaza or the West Bank or give details about the facilities where they died.
WEST BANK
At least 20 Palestinians were detained in Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, prisoners’ affairs groups said.
A child was among the detainees in the raids that targeted Nablus, Qalqilya, and Bethlehem, 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 12,000, 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.
In addition, Israeli forces on Wednesday raided three currency exchange shops in Ramallah, the central occupied West Bank, and closed them.
According to witnesses, the Israeli army raided the cities of Ramallah and Al-Bireh, and imposed a curfew in several neighborhoods.
The Israeli forces also broke into three currency exchange shops in Ramallah after detonating their doors, and placed a message warning the owners against reopening them.
The foreign currency exchange offices across the West Bank cities were subject to Israeli army’s raids in recent months, during which it seized funds under the claim of belonging to the Palestinian group Hamas.
Since Wednesday morning, the Israeli army has raided several areas across the West Bank to arrest Palestinians.
YEMEN
The Yemeni Houthi group announced Tuesday that it targeted three US supply ships, two destroyers and Israeli military targets.
Yahya Saree, the group’s spokesperson, said: “The naval forces, the drone unit, and the missile force (of the Houthis) carried out a unique military operation targeting three US supply ships after their departure from Djibouti port, which had previously engaged in aggression against Yemen.”
The operation also targeted two US destroyers in the Gulf of Aden that were “escorting the supply ships. The operation involved several missiles and drones and successfully achieved its objectives,” Saree added.
In a related development, the spokesperson said that the group “carried out two military operations targeting military sites in Jaffa and Ashkelon in occupied Palestine with two drones this morning (Tuesday).”
He said that “both operations successfully achieved their objectives,” reaffirming the group’s commitment to “continuing its supportive operations for the Palestinian resistance and its defensive operations for Yemen until the aggression (by Israel) ends and the siege on Gaza is lifted.”
There has been no immediate comment from the US or Israel over the Houthi statement.
In solidarity with the Gaza Strip, which has been facing a genocidal war by Israel since October last year, the Houthis have targeted Israeli sites, cargo ships, or those associated with Tel Aviv with missiles and drones, expressing their determination to continue operations until the end of the onslaught on the enclave.
A coalition led by the US has been conducting airstrikes since the beginning of 2024 that it said are targeting Houthi locations in parts of Yemen in response to attacks by the group on shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The counterattacks have been occasionally met with retaliation from the group.
[Photo: Palestinians, whose loved ones were killed by Israeli attacks near Rafah, mourn as they receive the bodies from the morgue of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza on December 11, 2024. Photojournalist: Abed Rahim Khatib/AA]
