Casualties
- 19,650+ killed* and at least 53,000 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
- 302 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.
- 464 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 1,831 injured.
*This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health. 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 26,000.
Key Developments
- UN Security Council members work on language of ceasefire resolution to avoid U.S. veto.
- NetBlocks watchdog says Israel cut off internet and telephone communications in Gaza Strip.
- Palestinian firm, Paltel, says all telecommunication services “have been lost due to the ongoing aggression. Gaza is blacked out again”.
- UNICEF says thousands of children in Gaza remain at risk of accessing enough water, and sanitation services are in run-down conditions and could collapse.
- OCHA says due to Israel’s blackout of communication, it could not update its daily report of events in the Gaza Strip.
- OCHA says Palestinians in Gaza have been living without electricity supply since October 11 and depend on fuel-generated electricity.
- Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is in Cairo to hold talks and Israel’s president says Tel Aviv is prepared for another truce.
- Israel’s Channel 12 concludes that Israeli tank fired at house in Be’eri settlement while Hamas fighters and Israeli captives were inside it on October 7.
- Malaysia’s Prime Minister bans all Israeli-flagged cargo ship from docking at ports as Israel continues “massacre and brutality against Palestinians”.
- Addameer rights group says 2,070 Palestinians are being held in administrative detention in Israeli jails, a form of arbitrary imprisonment without trial or charge.
UN Security Council postpones vote on Gaza’s ceasefire resolution
The UN Security Council postponed for the second time a vote on a ceasefire resolution in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
The resolution was initially scheduled for a vote on Monday. However, Security Council members are debating the draft’s wording to avoid another U.S. veto. On December 8, the U.S. rejected a ceasefire call, while the UK abstained.
U.S. foreign officials warned that support for Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip is isolating Washington from its allies and could cost it diplomatically in the long run.
On Tuesday, the National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby confirmed that the U.S. is “still working through the modalities of the resolution.”
A draft proposed the “urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities”; however, the U.S. rejected such wording in the last vote.
Last week, the UN General Assembly voted by a majority of 193 countries in support of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, while ten countries voted against it, including the U.S. and Israel, and 23 members abstained.
Israel cuts off internet in Gaza Strip again
On Wednesday morning, Israel cut off internet and telephone communications in the Gaza Strip, according to the NetBlocks watchdog, which said that data from live networks in Gaza showed a new collapse in communication.
“The incident affects areas in the south where telecoms had been partially restored over the last few days, while other areas have remained offline since the previous blackout,” it said.
This is the seventh time Israeli forces have cut off communication in the Gaza Strip since October 7. The Palestinian firm, Paltel, said on Wednesday that all telecommunication services in the enclave “have been lost due to the ongoing aggression. Gaza is blacked out again”.
On Wednesday morning, Palestinian hospitals in the Gaza Strip received 20 martyrs killed and dozens injured overnight in Israeli bombardment. The figure is expected to rise with the day.
On Tuesday evening, Israeli shelling and air strikes killed almost 100 Palestinians, the Wafa news agency reported. Gaza’s Ministry of Health announced that 19,650 people were killed and at least 53,000 wounded in Israeli bombings since October 7.
UNICEF: “Children in Gaza have barely a drop to drink”
UNICEF said thousands of children in Gaza remain at risk of accessing enough water and that water and sanitation services are in run-down conditions and could collapse.
“Access to sufficient amounts of clean water is a matter of life and death, and children in Gaza have barely a drop to drink,” Catherine Russell, UNICEF’s Executive Director, said on Wednesday.
The Children’s Agency estimates that Gaza’s children are accessing 1.5 to 2 liters of water daily, just below the survival amount. At least three liters of water per individual is needed in emergency conditions to drink, wash, cook, and avoid disease.
Russell said that Gaza’s “children and their families are having to use water from unsafe sources that are highly salinated or polluted. Without safe water, many more children will die from deprivation and disease in the coming days,” she warned.
Israeli forces bomb Palestinian family houses in Gaza
Israel kept bombing and shelling the Gaza Strip for the 75th day.
A bombing of a house in Deir Al-Balah town in central Gaza killed 13 people and injured dozens on Tuesday evening. Another 15 Palestinians from the Hamdan family were killed in an Israeli air strike on their house west of Khan Younis.
In north Gaza, Israeli forces attacked and bombed neighborhoods of Al-Tuffah, Al-Daraj, Sheikh Radwan, and Al-Shuja’ya to the east of Gaza City. Near the Al-Jalaa Tower area in Gaza City, Israeli forces killed 13 Palestinians and injured others while preventing ambulances from reaching the area, Wafa reported.
In the Al-Rimal neighborhood, Israeli air strikes on two residential towers killed at least 50 Palestinians on Tuesday afternoon, most of them recovered from under the rubble by their families and rescue teams.
Israeli forces also bombed a building in Al-Mugharbi Street in Gaza, and an office for the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) in the industrial zone in north Gaza.
In Jabalia refugee camp, the bodies of 27 Palestinians were recovered from under the rubble by rescue teams following Israeli air strikes on several homes. In the south of Gaza, Israeli forces also bombed the town of Bani Suhaila and the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
UN OCHA struggles to update report due to communication blackout
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said due to Israel’s blackout of communication in the enclave, it could not update its daily report of events in the Gaza Strip.
“On 19 December, for the sixth day in a row, most areas of the Gaza Strip had no telecommunications or internet services severely affecting emergency operations and access to information. Services in the southern area were partially restored on 18 December,” OCHA said on Tuesday.
The UN group said that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been living without electricity since October 11, the day Israel cut off the power supply, and have been depending on fuel-generated electricity.
On Tuesday, Israeli forces stormed the Al-Mamadani Hospital east of Gaza City, arresting several medical staff and patients. Al-Mamadani went out of service after the attack. It is one of three hospitals in the north of Gaza that had been left partially operating despite the lack of medical supplies.
Hamas leader in Cairo to hold talks and Israel’s president says Tel Aviv is ready for another truce
On Wednesday, the political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, arrived in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials, in which the war with Israel will be discussed.
Haniyeh’s visit comes hours after Israel’s President Isaac Herzog signaled Tel Aviv’s willingness to discuss another truce and exchange captives with Palestinian prisoners.
“I can reiterate the fact that Israel is ready for another humanitarian pause and additional humanitarian aid in order to enable the release of hostages,” Herzog said on Tuesday evening, during a meeting with ambassadors of 80 countries in Jerusalem.
Palestinian resistance movements in the Gaza Strip expressed their willingness to talk if Israel stops bombing the enclave.
“We would like to confirm that no negotiations will be held for a prisoner swap until the aggression against us completely stops. We are open to any initiative that we might receive from our brothers in Egypt and Qatar. We will look at it with the sacrifices of our people and our Palestinian national vision in mind,” Osama Hamdan, the spokesperson for Hamas, said on Monday.
On Tuesday, Hamas launched a barrage of rockets on Tel Aviv in the 74th day of the war, dedicating it to Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank. It also released a video of resistance fighters targeting an Israeli bulldozer in the Tel Al-Zaatar area north of Gaza City.
Hamas also announced that it launched 12 rockets from southern Lebanon on the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Shmona, north of the occupied Palestine, on Tuesday evening.
Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigades released a video of attacking Israeli forces in Gaza with mortar shells. On Tuesday, it also released a video of two Israeli captives calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to secure their release.
On Tuesday, Israel’s Channel 12 concluded that an Israeli tank fired at a house in Be’eri settlement, while Hamas fighters and Israeli captives were inside it on October 7.
Channel 12 broadcast an aerial video footage of the tank firing shells, obtained from a police helicopter. Footage also show almost 500 Israeli soldiers remained stationery outside the settlement.
Malaysia bans all Israeli-flagged cargo ships from docking at ports
Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia’s Prime Minister, announced on Wednesday the banning of all Israeli-flagged cargo ships from docking at its ports as Israel continues “massacre and brutality against Palestinians”.
“The Malaysian government decided to block and disallow the Israeli-based shipping company ZIM from docking at any Malaysian port,” Anwar said.
ZIM is Israel’s largest shipping firm. Anwar said that the decision is a response “to Israel’s actions that ignore basic humanitarian principles and violate international law through the ongoing massacre and brutality against Palestinians.”
The decision is another blow to Israel’s maritime exports and imports following Yemen’s Ansar Allah group’s decision to target and block any ship dealing with Israel from accessing the Red Sea.
Israeli forces kill Palestinian in Hebron and spray Star of David in Jenin’s theatre
On Wednesday, a Palestinian driver was shot and killed by Israeli fire near the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba near Hebron. In total, 302 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and Jerusalem since October 7.
Israeli forces arrested 25 Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem overnight.
Currently, there are 7,820 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, which said that since October 7, Israeli forces have arrested 4,630 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
According to the Addameer rights group, at least 2,070 Palestinians are serving administrative detention sentences, a form of imprisonment without trial or charge that can be renewed numerous times.
Three Palestinians were injured by Israeli forces’ fire during night raids of Tamoun and Al-Yamoun towns, north of the occupied West Bank.
Last week, Israeli forces raided Jenin town, and soldiers stormed The Freedom Theatre cultural institution, vandalizing it and spraying a Star of David and a Hannukah menorah on a wall and inside the cinema hall, Al-Jazeera reported. One of the theatre’s directors has been released from Israeli detention, while the other remains held.
