Above photo: Palestinians wait in crowded queue for long hours to buy bread from the only bakery since Israeli forces allow limited quantities of flour and fuel to enter in Khan Yunis, Gaza on November 18, 2024. STR / APA images.
As it enters the 60th day.
Gaza ceasefire talks resume in Cairo as Israel continues to besiege the north of Gaza for the 60th day, and UNRWA announces that it will be halting aid shipments due to dangerous conditions and the continued looting of aid trucks.
Casualties
- 44,466 + killed* and at least 105,358 wounded in the Gaza Strip, 59% of whom are women, children and elderly.
- 801+ Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This includes at least 146 children.**
- 3,961 Lebanese killed and more than 16,520 wounded by Israeli forces since October 8, 2023***
- Israel revised its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,189.
- Israel recognizes the death of 890 Israeli soldiers, policemen and intelligence officers and the injury of at least 5,065 others since October 7.****
* Gaza’s branch of the Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed this figure in its daily report, published through its WhatsApp channel on December 2, 2024. Rights groups and public health experts estimate the death toll to be much higher.
** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. This is the latest figure according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health as of December 1, 2024.
*** This figure was released by the Lebanese Health Ministry, updated on December 1, 2024. The counting is based on the Lebanese official date for the beginning of “the Israeli aggression on Lebanon,” when Israel began airstrikes on Lebanese territory after the beginning of Hezbollah’s “support front” for Gaza.
**** These figures are released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.” Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported on August 4, 2024, that some 10,000 Israeli soldiers and officers have been either killed or wounded since October 7. The head of the Israeli army’s wounded association told Israel’s Channel 12 that the number of wounded Israeli soldiers exceeds 20,000, including at least 8,000 who have been permanently handicapped as of June 1. Israel’s Channel 7 reported that according to the Israeli war ministry’s rehabilitation service numbers, 8,663 new wounded joined the army’s handicap rehabilitation system since October 7 and as of June 18.
Key Developments
Gaza
- Israel kills 136 Palestinians and wounds 461 more across the Gaza Strip since Friday.
- UNRWA says it stopped humanitarian aid entry through the Karam Abu Salem crossing between Israel and Gaza, due to the repeated ‘looting’ of aid trucks and inaction to protect the entry of aid on the part of Israeli authorities.
- Director General of field hospitals in Gaza, Mahmoud al-Hams, says that medical teams have “nothing to offer” cases of malnutrition, due to the Israeli siege and restrictions on the entry of aid.
- Al-Hams added that Israel is “systematically destroying” the Palestinian health system in the Gaza Strip through siege and targeting of hospitals and medical staff, and that wounded Palestinians in the north of Gaza are not getting treated due to lack of ambulances and health services.
- Former Israeli war minister and army Chief of Staff, Mosheh Yaalon, says that Israel is “committing ethnic cleansing” in Gaza, and that he based his statement on conversations with Israeli soldiers who have been deployed in Gaza during the war.
- UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres describes the situation in Gaza as “apocalyptic” and as “a failure of our common humanity.”
- Guterres says that Gaza has the highest rate of amputated children per capita in the world.
- Israeli public broadcaster quotes an unnamed Israeli official saying that renewed ceasefire talks with Hamas in Cairo have seen progress.
- Hamas says that its delegation in Cairo discussed ceasefire possibilities with Egyptian intelligence officials.
- The mother of an Israeli-American captive in Gaza, of whom Hamas released a recorded video message, says that Netanyahu told her that “conditions are mature” for a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas, during a large protest demanding a ceasefire and exchange deal in Tel Aviv.
- Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir threatens to withdraw from the government coalition if a ceasefire with Hamas is signed.
Lebanon
- Lebanon counts 62 Israeli violations of the ceasefire deal since it entered into effect last week, including 10 breaches on Sunday alone. These include airstrikes in the south of Lebanon and machine gun fire in areas where the Israeli army hasn’t withdrawn yet.
- The Israeli army says that it bombed the location of a church in southern Lebanon after allegedly detecting Hezbollah fighters near it.
- The Israeli army issues warnings to the inhabitants of dozens of southern Lebanese villages not to return to their homes until new instructions.
- France and the US warn both Israel and Lebanon of a possible collapse of the ceasefire.
- Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says that Israel is not interested in ceasefire mechanisms [stipulated in the deal] and that it reserves the “right” to act freely in Lebanon.
- Hezbollah says it is respecting the ceasefire deal and is watching Israeli violations of the truce “with the finger on the trigger.”
- An Israeli drone strike on a Lebanese army site kills a Lebanese soldier and two other Lebanese in al-Hermel, in the Bekaa valley, according to the Lebanese army.
West Bank
- Israeli forces kill four Palestinians during a raid on the village of Seer, south east of Jenin.
- Israeli forces raid the village of al-Tabqa, south west of Hebron, and fire tear gas, following a storming of the village by Israeli settlers.
- Israeli forces raid the city of Nablus to escort Israeli settlers into the religious site of Joseph’s Tomb in the city.
- Israeli forces raid the town of Anabta, south of Tulkarem, and the village of Burqa, east of Ramallah.
- Israeli settlers attacked on Sunday the Palestinian village of Um Safa, north of Ramallah, opened gunfire and physically attacked municipality workers fixing water pipes.
- Israeli settlers harass on Sunday Palestinian herders in Masafer Yatta, in the southern Hebron hills.
- Israeli settlers attack Palestinian vehicles with stones at the entrances of the villages of Deir Ballout and Hares, near Salfit, on Sunday.
- Israeli settlers destroy 150 olive trees in the village of al-Menyah, near Bethlehem, the village’s mayor reported on Sunday.
UNRWA suspends aid delivery to Gaza after looting unstopped by the Israeli army
The UN agency responsible for providing humanitarian relief to Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, announced on Sunday that it has suspended receiving and delivering aid to Gaza through the Karam Abu Salem crossing between Israel and Rafah in southern Gaza, the main entry point to the Strip for humanitarian aid.
The agency, which is the largest supplier of aid in Gaza, said in a statement that the road for delivering aid to the crossing point has been dangerous for months, especially since the Israeli invasion of Rafah last April. UNRWA also said that several truck drivers and aid delivery workers had been killed or injured, adding that “it can not continue to put their lives at risk.”
North Gaza siege continues
Meanwhile, the Israeli siege of the north of Gaza continued for the 60th day, sealing off the cities, towns and refugee camps of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia. Israeli forces shelled Beit Lahia and the west of Jabalia over the weekend, and detonated several residential blocks in Jabalia.
On Saturday the former war minister and former chief of staff of the Israeli army, Likud member Moshe Ya’alon, said in an interview with an Israeli television that Israel was committing ethnic cleansing in Gaza, pointing specifically to Jabalia and the north of Gaza. After widespread criticism from within Israel, Ya’alon later doubled down, saying that he stands by his declarations, adding that he based his conclusions on testimonies of soldiers who have been deployed in Gaza.