Casualties
- 24,448+ killed* and at least 61,504 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
- 387+ 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.
- 547 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 3,221 injured.**
*This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on January 16. Some rights groups put the death toll number at more than 31,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.
**This figure is released by the Israeli military.
Key Developments
- Qatari-mediated deal reached between Israel and Hamas, which allows aid supplies to be delivered to Palestinians and medicines to Israeli captives in Gaza Strip.
- Hamas says it turned down request by France to inspect medical packages “due to our lack of confidence in the French government”.
- Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael Al-Dahdouh arrives in Doha to receive medical treatment after he was injured in an Israeli bombing.
- Der Spiegel magazine reveals that Germany is planning to send thousands of tank shells to Israeli forces.
- Hamas says Germany’s decision to send ammunition to Israel “turns [it] into a direct partner in the war against our people in Gaza.”
- The Council of the European Union adds Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar to sanctions list, freezing his assets and funds in Europe, if he had any.
- Far-right National Security Minister criticizes Israeli government decision to pull out 36th Division from Gaza, saying it is “blunder that will lead to damage”.
- Hamas’s Izz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades releases video of targeting Israeli armoured personal carrier in Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood with an explosive and anti-tank Al-Yaseen shell.
- Israeli drone strike kills three Palestinians in vehicle near Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus.
Israeli forces attack Palestinians sheltering near Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis
On Wednesday, the Gaza’s Ministry of Health said that Israeli forces committed 16 massacres in the Gaza Strip, killing 163 Palestinians and injuring 350 in the past 24 hours.
Israel has killed at least 24,448 Palestinians and injured 61,504 others since October, the ministry added, warning that it detected the spread of hepatitis A, a liver disease, “as a result of overcrowding and low levels of hygiene in places of displacement in the Gaza Strip.”
“We warn against stopping the laboratory blood test (CBC) at any moment due to the lack of its materials,” it added on its Telegram channel.
On Tuesday evening, the Israeli forces bombed the vicinity of Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis, forcing thousands of displaced Palestinians sheltering in the area to panic and run away. At least seven people were killed in the bombing.
Al-Nasser Hospital has been for weeks a shelter for thousands of Palestinians in the southern and central areas of the Gaza Strip. Israel has been targeting Palestinian hospitals since October as part of collective punishment and to push Palestinians to flee the enclave.
Some of those hospitals were stormed such as Al-Shifa in Gaza, as Israel claimed Hamas hosted a “headquarters” underneath, which proved to be false.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health said that since October Israeli forces killed 337 medical staff and arrested 99 others, bombed 203 medical centers and clinics, destroyed 121 ambulances and damaged 30 hospitals, forcing it to stop operating completely. Israeli forces kept pushing in Khan Younis and destroyed a cemetery in the Austrian neighborhood.
Wafa news agency reported that for the sixth day in a row, Israel had cut the internet and mobile services in Gaza.
Palestinian rescue teams and ambulances recovered the bodies of 25 martyrs and dozens of injured from under the rubble in Al-Daraj neighborhood in Gaza City, following an Israeli airstrike.
An Israeli bombing of Al-Namrouti house killed four members of the family and injured others, while three members of Safi family were killed and others injured. Israel also bombed the houses of Hamdan and Muhaisen families in Khan Younis.
Overnight, the Israeli artillery targeted Khan Younis’s Al-Manara and Batn Al-Sameen neighborhoods and the city center of Khan Younis, and in north Gaza, it attacked Jabalia refugee camp, Gaza port, and Al-Ansar residential complex.
Israeli drone strikes kill seven in the West Bank
At least seven Palestinians were killed in two separate drone strikes in the northern occupied West Bank cities of Tulkarem and Nablus.
In the eastern part of Nablus city, three Palestinians were killed in the Balata refugee camp. Wafa news reported that the Israeli drone strike was carried out near the Barada Junction in Balata. Israeli forces stormed Nablus and Balata following the attack, opened fire at Red Crescent crews, and blocked ambulances from reaching the area.
Wafa reported that Israeli forces held the bodies of two Palestinians killed in the drone attack while medics were able to recover the remains of a third Palestinian.
Shortly after the drone strike in Balata, a second strike was reported in the Tulkarem refugee camp. Four Palestinians were killed, and their bodies were transported to a hospital.
Israeli forces raided the camp around 4:30 a.m. local time, surrounding the site of the strike and preventing ambulance crews from accessing the wounded, according to Wafa. The Palestinian Red Crescent was eventually able to transport the bodies of the four slain Palestinians to the local hospital.
During the raid, which lasted more than eight hours and was still ongoing at the time of publication, Israeli forces reportedly blocked off the entrance to a local hospital while Israeli bulldozers caused destruction to camp roads and infrastructure.
Fierce clashes and armed confrontations erupted in the camp, with local resistance groups attempting to fend off the Israeli incursion. During the raid, Israeli forces detained three Palestinians from Tulkarem city, including two former prisoners, Wafa reported.
Israeli forces conducted raids across the West Bank and Jerusalem overnight Wednesday, arresting 86 Palestinians from several cities and towns, including 40 workers from Gaza.
Israel-Hamas strike deal to deliver medical supplies for captives and Palestinians
A Qatari-mediated deal was reached between Israel and Hamas on Tuesday evening, which will allow aid supplies to be delivered to Palestinians and medicines to Israeli captives in the Gaza Strip.
Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that a shipment of aid and medication will leave Doha on Wednesday to the Egyptian city of El-Arish before being transported into Gaza.
According to Al-Jazeera, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will coordinate delivering the medical packages, which are enough to last several months, to 45 Israeli captives held by Hamas in Gaza.
France helped Qatar organize this aid shipment. Israeli captive families have come up with the idea of delivering medication to captives in Gaza.
However, there is no news yet of a possible hostage exchange deal. The White House said on Tuesday that the US Middle East Envoy was engaged in “very serious and intensive discussions” with the Qataris and that they hoped “it will bear fruit soon.”
At least 132 Israeli captives remain held in Gaza out of the 240 captured during the Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7.
Musa Abu Marzouk, a senior leader in Hamas, wrote on the X platform that “the Red Cross submitted a request to provide medicine to Hamas [Israeli] prisoners of war, and there were 140 types of medicine.”
He added that for each medicine packet entering Gaza for the Israeli captives, a thousand packets will be delivered to Palestinians.
“The Red Cross places medicine in four hospitals covering all areas of the Gaza Strip, including medicine for prisoners,” he added.
Abu Marzouk said the movement turned down a request by France to inspect the medical packages “due to our lack of confidence in the French government, its position in support of the Israeli occupation, and its standing in the face of our people’s aspirations for freedom and [right of] return.”
Wael Al-Dahdouh leaves Gaza for Qatar to receive medical treatment
Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael Al-Dahdouh arrived in Doha on Tuesday evening for medical treatment.
Al-Dahdouh, 53, still sustains an injury after being targeted by an Israeli airstrike in December, which killed Al-Jazeera cameraman, Samer Abu Daqa.
Israel also killed Al-Dahdouh’s eldest son, Hamza, in early January, who is also a journalist working for Al-Jazeera.
Wael Al-Dahdouh had lost a number of his family, including his wife, daughter, and granddaughter, when an Israeli air strike hit a house in the Al-Nuseirat refugee camp where they were sheltering in October.
He went back to report live on Al-Jazeera from north Gaza less than 24 hours after the tragic event. He became a symbol of resilience, courage, and professionalism for journalists.
“Wael’s unwavering dedication during his coverage in Gaza, where he tragically lost his family, is a testament to his resilience and commitment,” his colleague at Al-Jazeera, Mohamed Moawad wrote on the X platform.
Germany to send Israel thousands of tank shells
The German government is planning to send thousands of tank ammunition to the Israeli forces, according to Der Spiegel magazine on Tuesday.
In November, Israel submitted a request to Berlin asking for a supply of 10,000 rounds of 120mm precision ammunition.
German authorities agreed to answer the Israeli request positively, however, it will send tank ammunition from German army stores first as manufacturing this high number of rounds would take time.
In December, the US approved the sale of 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition to Israel worth $106 million. At that time, the State Department greenlit the sale as an emergency exception without a vote as per US law, which requires arms deals to be approved by Congress.
Hamas said that Germany’s decision to send ammunition to Israel “turns Germany into a direct partner in the war against our people in Gaza.”
“Germany bears full political and moral responsibility for the war crimes committed by this Nazi Zionist government and the genocidal war against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip,” the statement added.
On Tuesday, the Council of the European Union added Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar to a sanctions list for masterminding the Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7.
Sinwar’s assets and funds in EU member states will be frozen. However, there are no reports indicating that he had a bank account or owned properties in Europe. The U.S. has sanctioned Sinwar since 2015.
Ben-Gvir calls pulling out from north Gaza a ‘serious error‘
The far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir criticized the Israeli government’s decision to pull out the 36th Division from the Gaza Strip, saying that it is a “blunder that will lead to damage”.
On Monday, Israel withdrew thousands of forces from north Gaza for training and recreation purposes and announced that the “intensive stage” ended in the area.
Since December, the US called on the Israeli government to move to the “next phase of the war” and to avoid targeting civilians, a move that many viewed as an attempt by the Biden administration to appease frustrated members of his base at home. Yoav Gallant, the Israeli Minister of Defense, said on Monday that forces achieved their goals in north Gaza and the three months of intensive manoeuvring [sic] stage” has ended.
Yet, Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip is still killing hundreds of Palestinians daily. Since Monday, Israel has killed more than 300 Palestinians and injured hundreds of others despite claims of moving to a “less intense stage.” Ben-Gvir, the leader of Jewish Power party, said “This is an acute and serious error that will cost human lives.”
“The rocket barrage that was launched this morning at Netivot, from an area from which the IDF forces left only yesterday, proves once again that the occupation of the Strip is necessary for the realization of the combat goals,” he wrote on the X platform on Tuesday.
Less than 24 hours after Israel pulled out the troops from north Gaza, Hamas launched rockets on Israeli towns, including the Al-Naqab (Negev), west of the Gaza Strip.
Ben-Gvir is a settler leader who lives in Hebron, and has called for rebuilding settlements in the Gaza Strip and for ethnically cleansing Palestinians.
He famously celebrated when Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke and fell into a coma in 2006, by hosting a barbecue party. Sharon was the former Israeli prime minister who withdrew settlers and forces from Gaza in 2005.
Hamas and Mujahideen Brigades attack Israeli forces in Gaza
In the past 24 hours, Hamas’s Izz El-Din Al-Qassam Brigades released a video of targeting an Israeli armored personnel carrier in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, near Gaza City, with an explosive and the anti-tank Al-Yaseen shell.
The Mujahideen Brigades released a video of targeting Israeli warplanes with SAM-7, a surface-to-air missile, in Khan Younis, Gaza City, and Al-Shuja’iyya areas. The Israeli military said that three soldiers were killed in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of army casualties since October to 547 killed and 3,221 injured.
Day 103 of New York Times coverage:
page 17, Bret Stephens writes an editorial, “The Charges Against Israel Are Obscene” – Stephens explains that the real terrorists are Hamas, not the Jewish State , and besides, the U.S. nuked Japan. Hey, it’s war.
page 6: “One of Israel’s Most Destructive Bombs, Dropped in So-Called Safe Areas”.
Correction: previously I said a 2,000 bomb had a kill radius of 1,000 feet. The Times calls it the ‘hazardous blast distance’, and it’s 3,000 feet.
How mainstream news is doing Israel’s dirty work of sanitizing slaughter
The scale and brutality of Israel’s crimes in Gaza simply can’t be denied—yet many media outlets are finding a way.
by Maximillian Alvarez January 17, 2024
“Israel’s genocide in Gaza has undoubtedly become the most broadcasted atrocity in history. With massacre after massacre streamed daily to audiences in the billions, Israel’s crimes have now been witnessed as if firsthand by a huge portion of humanity. In spite of this, corporate news outlets have trafficked in coverage that all-too-often flouts a reality we can see before our eyes. This sort of unreliability evinces far more than a crisis of integrity in legacy media—it’s a sign of a deep political crisis that runs to the upper echelons of our system. Millions of US voters are turning against the Democrats over the carnage in Gaza, and rather than changing course, the powers that be are simply attempting to distort and pollute the narrative.”
https://therealnews.com/how-mainstream-news-is-doing-israels-dirty-work-of-sanitizing-slaughter