‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 82: Israel accused of harvesting organs from dead Gazans 

Casualties: 

• 20,915+ killed* and at least 54,536 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
• 311 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem
• Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,405 to 1,139.
• 498 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 1,952 injured.

*This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on December 26. Due to breakdowns in communication networks within the Gaza Strip, the Ministry of Health in Gaza has been unable to regularly and accurately update its tolls since mid-November. Some rights groups put the death toll number closer to 28,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.

Key Developments: 

• Gaza Media Office: Palestinian bodies returned “mutilated,” Israel removed “vital organs from them.”
• Israel bombs West Bank refugee camp east of Tulkarem, killing six Palestinian youths. 
• Israeli Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi: Israeli forces will not refrain from operating in declared “safe zones” if it “identifies terrorist organization activity.”
• Palestinian telecommunication company: Gaza sent into yet another communications blackout on Tuesday and Wednesday. 
• Iraq militia pledges more attacks on American forces.
• Israeli teen sentenced to 30 days in prison after refusing to join military. 
• Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas: What is happening in Gaza is greater and more horrific than the Nakba in 1948.
• Red Sea attacks by Yemeni armed forces continue as U.S. shoots down drones and missiles.
• Prominent Palestinian political activist Khalida Jarrar held without charge or trial following Israeli arrest on Tuesday. 
• OCHA: Over 4,037 students and 209 educational staff killed in Gaza since October 7, over 7,259 students and 619 teachers injured.
• Three dead from Israeli strike in Bint Jbeil, Lebanon, including one Hezbollah fighter and two civilians. 
• Gaza’s Ministry of Health: At least 241 people killed and 382 injured in the past 24 hours.

Palestinians killed by the hundreds in Gaza

Israel has continued its barbaric and unending attacks on Gaza’s population for yet another day. Over the past 24 hours alone, Israeli forces have killed at least 195 people and injured 325 others, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. 

Overnight on Tuesday, Israel renewed its attacks on Khan Younis, this time around the vicinity of the Nasser Hospital and the Jordanian field hospital, reported Al Jazeera. 

The relentless and heavy shelling around the medical facilities follows the same pattern of attack as when the army violently surrounded Al-Shifa’ Hospital before it was brutally stormed. 

Palestinians seeking shelter in and around the hospital have been growing increasingly concerned, believing the military plans to attack the Nasser and the Jordanian field hospitals as they have done with several other medical complexes. 

Although Israeli army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi claims that the military is “focused and precise in its operations,” the military has also said it wouldn’t refrain from attacking “safe zones” if it “identifies terrorist organization activity threatening the security of Israel.”

“Children have been exposed to extremely traumatic episodes with some patients recovering from physical injuries and some having lost family members,” Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said in a post on X.

“Their coping strategies have been taken away from them. There is no safe place and no sense of security. It must stop now.”

As Israeli military operations in Gaza continue driving civilians closer to the southern borders, The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) warns that any attempts by Israel to deport and permanently displace Palestinians within and from Gaza would constitute a serious breach of international law and an “atrocity crime.”

“The forcible transfer and deportation of a significant population across borders, lacking any guarantees of return, would constitute a serious breach of international law, amounting to an atrocity crime,” said Jan Egeland, the NRC’s secretary general.

“Pushing for the irreversible deportation of hundreds of thousands directly undermines resolving this conflict amid decades of a refugee crisis,” he continued. “The international community must unequivocally condemn any forced displacement of Palestinians, whether within or outside the Gaza Strip.

The “alarming prospect” of mass deportations is a consequence of recent media coverage and explicit declarations by Israeli officials supporting such deportations.

Despite Israel’s war on Gaza displacing about 85% of Gaza’s population, 1.9 million people, Israeli Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi says they will continue their attacks for “many more months.”

“The international community has failed to stop the genocide in the Gaza Strip and guarantee the freedom of movement of citizens in the West Bank, which calls into question the credibility of its declared positions on all issues related to the conflict,” the Palestinian Authority foreign ministry said in a statement, condemning the global community for not stopping “the genocide in Gaza.”

Israel returns ‘mutilated’ bodies of dead Gazans

On Tuesday, Israel handed over 80 Palestinian bodies to authorities in Gaza at the Karam Abu Salem border crossing.

Upon further investigation, the Gaza media office accused Israel of stealing organs from the deceased bodies, whose identities remain unknown. According to Hamas, the bodies were taken “from different areas of the Gaza Strip.”

“The media office denounces in the strongest terms the Israeli occupation army’s disdain for the dignity of the bodies of our 80 martyrs that Israel had stolen during its genocidal war because it delivered them mutilated,” a statement said.

“After examining the bodies, it is clear that the features of those killed had changed greatly in a clear indication that the Israeli occupation had stolen vital organs from them,” the statement continued. 

The office, who is calling for an independent international investigation, also highlighted that this is not the first time Israel has “mutilated” Palestinian bodies in Gaza. 

“Israel has previously exhumed graves in Jabalia and stole some of the bodies in addition to the fact that it still has dozens of bodies from the Gaza Strip in its possession,” it said.

Israel has also admitted that their pathologists in the past have harvested organs from dead Palestinians and others without the consent of their families.

Gaza is still starving despite UN resolution 

Meanwhile, despite the approval of a UN Security Council resolution calling for scaled-up humanitarian aid last week, Israel’s continued attacks on the besieged enclave have not allowed it to happen. 

Palestinian representative to the UN Riyad Mansour wrote to the President of the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Tuesday, saying that Israel is “snubbing” the body, the General Assembly (UNGA), and the “international community at large.” 

“It has been four days since the Security Council adopted resolution 2720, but, all this has been to no avail as Israel, the occupying power, presses on with its genocidal war on Palestinians,” Mansour said.

The situation at hospitals in Gaza is “dire,” says Sean Casey of the World Health Organization, as the few medical facilities still partially functioning remain overwhelmed by the ongoing attacks and the lack of aid. 

“I was at al-Aqsa Hospital in the middle area [of Gaza] where the night before they received a huge number of injuries, 100-plus injuries, and many deceased brought to the hospital from the night before,” Casey told Al Jazeera.

“We’re seeing significant numbers in the hospitals and it’s really important to reiterate the UN Security Council resolution called for humanitarian pathways … It’s really critical we see that realized because we’re seeing many civilians losing their lives, we’re seeing hospitals lose functionality, we’re seeing health workers displaced and unable to care for the many patients that are put before them.” 

The UN has repeatedly accused Israel of blocking essential humanitarian aid, fuel, and resources from entering Gaza, which has exacerbated the already dire humanitarian situation inside the besieged enclave.

Samer AbdelJaber, the country director for the UN agency, says in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, “people are setting up tents wherever they can” and have “nowhere to go and nothing to eat.”

AbdelJaber added that although humanitarian groups are handing out food parcels, it is “not enough for everyone,” and that “millions in Gaza are hungry.”

According to the World Food Program, one in four households in Gaza faces extreme hunger, with the threat of famine looming.

Although Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy says they have no conditions if the United Nations wants to bring more aid into Gaza, they have done nothing to facilitate its entry safely. 

Israel has also agreed “in principle” to allow Cyprus, with the support of Britain, to open up a humanitarian sea corridor into Gaza, reported Al Jazeera, citing Israeli media.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen relayed the initial approval for the corridor to his counterparts in Cyprus and the UK on Tuesday, saying it could likely begin operating “upon completion of the required preparations.”

The corridor, in theory, would bring more supplies and equipment into the besieged Palestinian enclave, which has so far relied only on the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and, recently, the Karam Abu Salem crossing by Israel. In reality, due to Israel’s control of Gaza’s borders, it is likely that Israel will still have the final say when it comes to any port of entry into Gaza, and what might be allowed through. 

Deadly West Bank raids continue

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces have continued their overnight rampages across Palestinian territories, detaining and killing its population. 

In Nour Shams refugee camp, east of Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank, the army killed 6 Palestinian youths, including four teenagers, during a large-scale military operation on the camp for the third night in a row. 

They were bombed with a drone which targeted the densely populated residential neighborhood. 

“The drone came from above, and the men simply didn’t stand a chance. This was a deliberate kill shot,” reported Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan.

“People tried to help them, but for at least an hour and a half, the Israelis wouldn’t allow ambulances to get in. Eventually, they had to pick up the bodies and take them down to where the ambulances were. Of course, at that stage. It was too late. These people were dead.”

The Palestinian Ministry of Health identified the slain Palestinians as Ahmad Anwar Hamarsha, 19; Ahmad Abdel Rahman Issa, 19; Adham Muhammad Fahmawi, 19; Yazan Ahmad Wahid Fahmawi, 23; Fares Hossam Fahmawi, 29, and Hamza Ahmad Mustafa Fahmawi, 17.

A seventh 24-year-old Palestinian has also been critically injured. 

According to Wafa, the military obstructed and detained ambulances carrying critically wounded patients. 

The head of the Tulkarem Doctors Syndicate said that a soldier assaulted, beat, and stabbed an injured person inside one of the detained ambulances while threatening to kill the patient, added the Palestinian news agency. 

Israeli forces also detained at least 12 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank during overnight raids, including in Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Tulkarem, according to the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Club.

The Commission added that since October 7, Israeli forces have arrested 4,795 Palestinians. 

Israel promises long war ahead

As Israel continues attacking Gaza, ripples are being felt across the world as political instability increases, the regional conflict widens, and people are unsure how far Israel is planning to go. 

Benjamin Netanyahu says the intensity of the fighting in Gaza will not soften any time soon and has implied it will only increase. 

“We see you, and we will come to you,” the Israeli Prime Minister said to Hamas in a video posted on X. 

“We are continuing the war, deepening the fighting in the southern Gaza Strip and elsewhere. We fight to the end,” he said. 

Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official based in Beirut, Lebanon, says that while the U.S. administration talks about saving the lives of civilians in Gaza, it then supplies Israel with weapons, and that its hands are stained with the blood of Gaza’s children.

Hamdan also added that Israel’s war trio — Netanyahu, Yoav Gallant, and Benny Gantz — is in a state of confusion because it has not achieved any of its declared goals.

“So far, the war has been going on for three months, and Israel’s military objectives of ‘eliminating’ Hamas haven’t been achieved. No one knows if it can be done militarily on the ground without the extermination of the population of Gaza,” Luciano Zaccara, an associate professor at Qatar University, told Al Jazeera.

“Every day, we are seeing this become much more complicated and volatile with a greater chance of expanding the conflict. If there is a direct confrontation between Israel and Iran, the trigger can explode.”

“Right now, we are seeing how different governments and states are making their calculations. If Israel is attacked by Iran, the United States cannot avoid entering into a direct confrontation. How far can Netanyahu go in pushing the limits?”

According to Al Jazeera, the ministry called on world leaders, notably the US administration, to “urgently intervene” to force the Israeli government to stop “its illegal unilateral measures” and to “curb the Israeli colonial encroachment in the occupied West Bank.”