Above photo: Smoke rises from areas in Jenin during an Israeli raid on the city that killed seven people, December 13, 2023. Mohammed Nasser/APA Images.
United Nations Says Israel Destroyed Nearly Quarter Of Gaza’s Buildings.
Israeli troops arrest dozens of Palestinian medical staff at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia. UNGA adopts ceasefire resolution. Israeli forces storm Jenin, killing 7. Netanyahu rejects prospect of PA rule in Gaza after war. Yemen fires on tanker.
Casualties
- 18,205+ killed* and more than 50,000 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
- 282 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem
- Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,147.
- 444 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and 1,682 injured.
*This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on December 12. Due to breakdowns in communication networks within the Gaza Strip, the Ministry of Health in Gaza has not been able to regularly and accurately update its tolls since mid-November. Some rights groups put the death toll number closer to 20,000.
Key Developments
- UN General Assembly adopts by 153-vote majority resolution calling for immediate ceasefire in Gaza and release of all Israeli hostages.
- Israeli forces blow up UNRWA-affiliated school in Beit Hanoun, arrest tens of medical staff at Kamal Adwan Hospital, which remains under siege by tanks and sniper fire.
- Palestinians living under military siege in Jabalia refugee camp turn marketplace into graveyard due to inaccessibility of nearby cemeteries.
- UN Satellite Center says Israel destroyed 80 percent of buildings in Gaza and north Gaza governorates.
- Israeli forces bomb UNRWA-affiliated Abu Hussien school in Jabalia camp housing hundreds of displaced Palestinians, kill journalist Abdel Karim Odeh.
- French Foreign Ministry demands investigation into death of Agence France-Presse photojournalist Issam Abdullah, killed in Israeli airstrike in October in southern Lebanon.
- Israeli military announces 600 soldiers have been injured in battles in Gaza since beginning of ground invasion in late October.
- Israeli military says two soldiers killed in operation to retrieve dead bodies of two Israeli soldiers in Gaza.
- Yemen’s Ansar Allah (commonly known as Houthis) launch two missiles on Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Ardmore Encounter near Bab Al-Mandab in Red Sea.
- Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells cabinet minister to prepare attack on Palestinian Authority in West Bank.
UN General Assembly Votes In Favor Of An Immediate Ceasefire In The Gaza Strip
The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of all Israeli hostages by a 153-vote majority on Tuesday evening.
Only ten countries opposed the vote, which included the U.S. and Israel, and 23 members abstained. UN General Assembly decisions are non-binding to UN members, who could treat them as recommendations. However, the majority vote in favor of a ceasefire signals an international demand to see Israel’s aggression in the Gaza Strip end.
Saudi Arabia’s UN ambassador, Abdulaziz Alwasil, said, “We thank all those who supported the draft resolution that was just adopted by a huge majority.”
“This reflects the international position to call for the enforcement of this resolution,” he added.
In late October, General Assembly members voted for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce,” which took a month to be achieved in November and only for a week following challenging Qatar-Egyptian mediation between Israel and the Palestinian resistance movement.
Israeli Forces Blow Up UNRWA School, Arrest Director Of Kamal Adwan Hospital
In the past 24 hours, Israeli forces have continued to bomb the Gaza Strip while blowing up several buildings, including a school affiliated with the UN Refugee Agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) in Beit Hanoun.
Thousands of Palestinians have taken shelter from Israeli bombardment in UNRWA schools in Gaza, yet top UN officials now warn that their facilities are not “safe zones” from the deadly shelling and air strikes.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health said on Tuesday that at least 18,412 Palestinian martyrs were killed and more than 50,000 injured in the Gaza Strip. Thousands of people remain missing and are believed to have died under the rubble and debris.
Palestinians living under military siege in Jabalia refugee camp, north of Gaza City, turned a marketplace into a graveyard as they could not access nearby cemeteries due to heavy fire from Israeli snipers and tanks. On Tuesday, Palestinians dug the market’s courtyard to bury their relatives and neighbors killed in Israeli bombings.
Israeli forces raided Kamal Adwan Hospital early on Tuesday following days of siege by tanks and indiscriminate bombardment on its vicinity in Beit Lahia, north of Gaza City. Israel detained 70 medical staff, including the director of the hospital, Ahmed Al-Kahlot, and took them to an unknown destination.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health said that five doctors were later released and that Israeli forces ordered medical staff to gather all the patients and workers in one building, and to evacuate all others in the complex. Israeli forces are currently imposing a blockade on the hospital for the fifth day in a row, and are training rifles on anyone who moves without permission.
Israel Destroyed 40,000 Buildings, Nearly A Quarter Of The Gaza Strip’s Structures
Israel’s aggression and pummelling of the Gaza Strip from land, sea, and air has destroyed thousands of buildings and housing units, erasing entire neighborhoods. International and human rights groups are attempting to quantify the destruction. The United Nations estimated in a report on Tuesday that, since October 7, Israel destroyed nearly 40,000 buildings or about 18 percent of the Gaza Strip’s structures.
The estimate is based on satellite imagery from the official UN Satellite Center (UNOSAT) taken on November 26, which analysts examined.
“There has been a 49 percent increase in the total number of damaged structures, highlighting the escalating impact of the conflict on civilian infrastructures,” UNOSAT said in a statement.
In the governorates of Gaza and north Gaza, there are 29,732 buildings have been damaged by Israeli bombardment out of a total of 37,379 structures in the area. This means that the destruction has extended to 80 percent of built structures in northern Gaza.
“Such estimates may underestimate the actual extent of destruction, because they do not show all the damage to buildings. For example, a collapsed building may appear but its roof is intact, as if it was not damaged,” UNOSAT added.
Israeli Forces Kill A Journalist, Block Ambulances, Bomb Houses In Southern Gaza
On Wednesday morning, medical staff at Naser Hospital received 40 bodies of Palestinian martyrs, 10 them children, killed in an Israeli bombing of Khan Younis, south of Gaza.
Israeli warplanes bombed several houses in Khan Younis on Wednesday morning, which belong to the families of Al-Najjar, Al-Amoudi, Al-Miqdad, and Amer, Wafa news agency reported.
In Deir Al-Balah in the center of the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces bombed the house of the Fatayer family, killing two children and injuring tens of people on Wednesday morning.
Israeli forces also bombed the Abu Hussien school, another UNRWA-affiliated facility in Jabalia camp, which housed hundreds of displaced Palestinians, and killed the journalist Abdel Karim Odeh. In total, Israel has killed 87 journalists in the Gaza Strip since October 7.
Abdul Jalil Hanjal, a spokesperson for the Palestine Red Crescent Society, told Wafa that the agency is struggling to provide first aid services in northern Gaza, while several hospitals went out of service.
Hanjal said that the Red Crescent is providing what little services it could amid a rainy storm that hit the Gaza Strip, which flooded the streets and created pools of mud amid a shortage of food supplies, drinking water, and blankets.
He added that Israeli forces are attacking medical crews and targeting and stopping ambulances that are transporting injured civilians.
“This is despite international signs placed on ambulance vehicles and on the attire of the crews. This is a deliberate targeting of the medical system,” he added.
On Tuesday, France’s Foreign Ministry demanded an investigation be opened into the death of Agence France-Presse photojournalist Issam Abdullah, 37, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in October in southern Lebanon.
“All light must be shed on this tragedy,” the ministry said in a statement, affirming that civilians and journalists should be protected and “must be able to exercise their profession freely and in complete safety.”
Two Israeli Soldiers Killed While Retrieving Two Dead Bodies Of Hostages
The Israeli military announced on Wednesday that 600 soldiers were injured in battles in the Gaza Strip since the ground invasion in late October.
It added that 135 soldiers remain in serious condition, and the rest sustained moderate and light injuries. The official figure of wounded Israeli soldiers is now 1,682, and those killed are 444.
On Wednesday morning, Israel also announced the death of 10 soldiers, including a colonel and senior commanders in the elite Golani Brigades, during battles against Palestinian resistance fighters in the Al-Shuja’iya neighborhood in northern Gaza.
At 4 pm local time on Tuesday, Hamas fighters targeted an Israeli infantry unit that was barricaded inside a building in Al-Shujai’ya with explosives and heavy fire.
Late on Tuesday, the Israeli military said that two soldiers were killed in an operation to retrieve two dead bodies of Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip. One of the soldiers was identified as Gal Meir Eisenkot, the son of Gadi Eisenkot, the renowned army’s chief of staff from 2015 to 2019 and the current member of Israel’s war cabinet. Gadi Eisenkot is notorious for authoring the “Dahiya Doctrine,” a policy of the deliberate use of disproportionate force against a civilian population from whose midst rockets are launched.
Yemeni Rebels Launch Two Missiles On A Tanker, Netanyahu Mulls Attacking Palestinian Authority
On Tuesday, The Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s military spokesperson, Abu Hamza, said in a recorded statement that “If the forces of the earth were to come together — and they have come together — they would not free a single [Israeli] prisoner.”
He said that the “reckless charlatan Netanyahu,” was prolonging the war to avoid his trial on corruption charges.
“This is your business,” Abu Hamza told the Israeli captives’ families. “Try him, imprison him, or kill him. Accordingly, he is working hard to procrastinate and evade, and his only goal of continuing the war is to remain in power.”
Abu Hamza added that “the price is undoubtedly the lives of your sons. The fate of [Netanyahu’s] captives and soldiers will not fall outside of these two possibilities: either death as a result of Zionist strikes and foolish attempts to liberate them, or the liberation through negotiation under the ceiling of a complete ceasefire.”
Benjamin Netanyahu is heading one of Israel’s extreme governments. On Tuesday, he said he won’t allow the Palestinian Authority (PA) to govern the Gaza Strip in the day after the war.
He also warned his cabinet ministers to be prepared for a possible attack on the PA in the occupied West Bank.
“We are discussing it. And we want to reach a situation where if such an event happens, then within a few minutes there will be helicopters in the air to respond” to the PA, he said.
“The difference between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority is that Hamas wants to destroy us here and now, and the Palestinian Authority wants to do it in stages,” he added.
“We cooperate with [the PA] against Hamas when it serves their interests and our interests to a certain extent.”
On Wednesday, Yemen’s Ansar Allah forces (more commonly known as “Houthis” internationally) launched two missiles on the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Ardmore Encounter near Bab Al-Mandab.
Ardmore Encounter was reportedly traveling toward Egypt’s Suez Canal in the Red Sea carrying Indian-manufactured jet fuel, and sailing for either Rotterdam in the Netherlands or Gavle in Sweden. The two missiles appear to have missed the vessel, but the story was still developing on Wednesday afternoon.
Ansar Allah warned that they will target ships dealing with Israel until occupation forces cease their bombardment in the Gaza Strip and allow food and medical supplies into the enclave.
Israeli Forces Storm Jenin, Kill Seven Palestinians
Israeli forces stormed several towns and villages in the occupied West Bank, including Jenin, Al-Amaari refugee camp in Ramallah, and Nablus.
Four Israeli soldiers were injured on Wednesday in an explosion during the Jenin raid. The town has seen immense fighting between Palestinian resistance fighters and Israeli forces since Tuesday.
Israeli forces launched a fire bomb on the house of Oday Bajawi, a leader in the Jenin Brigade in the Sharqi neighbourhood.
Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians in Jenin according to Wafa, and arrested more than 100 by Tuesday evening. On Wednesday morning, Israeli forces bombed the houses of Nasr al-Din al-Saadi and his brother Firas and arrested 12 people.
Israeli forces also stormed the town of Hizma in occupied Jerusalem and arrested 12 people, Wafa reported.
In total, Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed 282 Palestinians since October 7 in the West Bank and Jerusalem.