Above photo: People transport the injured and the bodies of Palestinians who were killed in an Israeli strike on Gaza City, near the Al-Ahli hospital. Gaza City, December 15, 2024. Hadi Daoud /apaimages.
Residents of a number of Gaza City neighborhoods received evacuation orders from the Israeli military.
Fueling fears that Israel may be extending it’s military operation, ‘The General’s Plan’ from the northern areas of Gaza to Gaza City.
Casualties
- 45,028 + killed* and at least 106,962 wounded in the Gaza Strip, 59% of whom are women, children, and elderly.
- 813+ Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This includes at least 146 children.**
- 3,962 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 16, 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 126, 2024.
*** This figure was released by the Lebanese Health Ministry, updated on December 9, 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 52 Palestinians since the early hours of Monday in air and artillery strikes across the Gaza Strip, and wounds more than 200.
- More than 40 Palestinians killed in an Israeli attack on a school sheltering civilians in Beit Hanoun, north of Gaza.
- Israel issues evacuation orders in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah, and Khan Younis.
- Israeli strikes target the Zeitoun, Sabra and Sheikh Radwan neighborhoods in Gaza City.
- Israeli strikes target the Civil Defense building in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza strip, killing five rescue workers and an Al Jazeera cameraman.
- Israeli media quote Israeli officials as saying that a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal in Gaza “might be concluded before the end of the year.”
- US national security advisor Jake Sullivan says, upon a visit to Israel, that a ceasefire deal is close but “not there yet,” and that his tour aims at pushing for a deal.
- Families of Israeli captives in Gaza demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Sunday, demanding a ceasefire and prisoner deal
Syria
- Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu announces a plan to increase Israeli settler population in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, at a cost of 40 million shekels.
- Israel bombs new Syrian military positions in Tartous, including weapons warehouses.
West Bank
- Palestinian Authority security forces continue a major operation in the Jenin refugee camp, clashing with local resistance fighters in the camp. Two Palestinians, including the head of the local Jenin Brigade, were killed by PA forces.
- A spokesperson for the Palestinian security forces says that the PA’s operation in Jenin aims at “enforcing law and order” and arresting “rogue elements.” The Jenin Brigade accuses the PA of trying to leave Jenin weaponless and defenseless to the Israeli occupation.
- Israeli settlers throw firebombs at a Palestinian house in the village of Burin near Nablus, set fire to an agricultural structure near Salfit, and assault a Palestinian youth in the northern Jordan Valley.
Israel Orders Palestinians In Gaza City To Leave In New Wave Of Displacement
The Israeli army issued displacement orders on Sunday to the people of Gaza City, ordering them to move out of several neighborhoods, as Israeli bombings intensified on the city, with Israeli strikes targeting the neighborhoods of Al-Sabra and Sheikh Radwan.
Israel’s renewed focus on Gaza City comes as the Israeli siege on the north of Gaza continues for the 70th day, along with intensified raids and bombings on Jabalia and Beit Hanoun. Since October, Israel has been carrying out an operation dubbed ‘The General’s Plan’, aimed at strangling the areas of the Gaza Strip north of Gaza City.
According to local sources, many Palestinians in Gaza City haven’t responded to the displacement orders, despite continuous strikes and attempts by the army to push them out of the city.
Nevertheless, fear is spreading among Palestinians that Israel is planning to extend the ‘General’s Plan’ to Gaza City, which is currently housing thousands of people who have been displaced from the northern areas of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya in the past two months.
Meanwhile, Israel displacement orders were also dropped on Palestinians in the central Gaza Strip near Deir al-Balah, and near Khan Younis in the south.