Casualties
- 25,105+ killed* and at least 62,681 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.
- 531 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 higher than 32,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.
** The Israeli military dropped the number of casualties to 531 soldiers from 547 after January 17.
Key Developments
- Gaza’s health spokesperson says, “medical crews can’t respond to the high number and types of injuries on a daily basis. The piling up of cases and lack of capabilities to treat them in hospitals is causing the loss of lives”.
- Israeli forces bomb vicinity of Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis with series of air strikes and artillery shelling.
- Palestine Red Crescent Society says, “humanitarian conditions in the Gaza and northern governorates are tragic… as 800,000 Palestinians there suffer from a great scarcity of basic materials.”
- Al-Jazeera Arabic reports homes left intact in Gaza are now becoming shelters while Israel keeps targeting Al-Nasser Hospital, which has “the highest number of beds, doctors, operation rooms” in all of Gaza Strip.
- Israel’s Netanyahu doubles down on refusal for two-state solution, says “I will not compromise on full Israeli security control over the entire area in the west of Jordan.”
- UK’s Minister of Defence says “Palestinians deserve a sovereign state, Israel deserves to have the full ability to defend itself, its own security.”
- Mustafa al-Barghouti, head of National Initiative Movement, says Biden’s statement about supporting two-state solution was “nonsense”.
- Thousands of Israelis demonstrate in Tel Aviv calling for release of Israeli captives held by Hamas, the resignation of Netanyahu, and for an early election.
- Wall Street Journal reports Hamas fighters remain resilient and have enough ammunition to fight for months.
- Israel approves the transfer of Palestinian Authority tax revenues through Norway, first time since October.
- Israeli forces demolish Nasr and Abdul Qadir al-Qawasmi’s apartments in Hebron.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health says Israel “intentionally suffocating health institutions”
Israel has killed more than 25,000 Palestinian martyrs in the Gaza Strip since October.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health announced on Sunday that 25,105 Palestinians were killed and 62,681 injured in the Israeli aggression.
In the past 24 hours, Israel committed 15 massacres in various areas of the Gaza Strip, according to the ministry, killing at least 178 Palestinian martyrs and injuring 293 people.
“The Israeli occupation is intentionally suffocating and destroying the health institutions and prolonging its devastation.” Dr. Ashraf Al-Qudra, the ministry spokesperson, said on Sunday.
“Medical crews can’t respond to the high number and types of injuries on a daily basis. The piling up of cases and lack of capabilities to treat them in hospitals is causing the loss of lives,” he added, drawing a bleak picture of Gaza’s health sector, which has been under systemic Israeli targeting.
Since October, Israeli forces have killed 337 Palestinian medical staff and arrested 99 others, bombed 203 medical centers and clinics, destroyed 121 ambulances, and damaged 30 hospitals, forcing them to stop operating completely.
Israeli forces target Al-Amal and Al-Nasser hospitals in Khan Younis
Wafa news agency reported that an Israeli airstrike on a vehicle killed three Palestinians traveling in the Souq Al-Yarmouk area in Gaza City on Saturday evening. Another Israeli airstrike on a house in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza killed and injured several Palestinians.
Israeli attacks and bombardment of north Gaza have been intense, killing and injuring dozens of Palestinians, despite Israel’s claim last week of “scaling back” and ending the “intense stage” in the area.
On Saturday afternoon, Israeli attacks on Jabalia refugee camp killed five Palestinians and wounded others when a house was bombed in the Al-Sika area.
Israeli attacks killed another five Palestinians in the southern town of Rafah and the central town of Al-Bureij, when four people were killed in an airstrike on a vehicle in Rafah, and the fifth was killed in an attack in the Al-Bureij refugee camp.
An Israeli airstrike on an apartment in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp killed at least four Palestinians, while three Palestinians were killed in the Al-Sultan area, west and north of Beit Lahia refugee camp, Wafa reported.
For the past several days, Israeli forces have been targeting the Al-Amal and Al-Nasser, two hospitals that are lifelines for thousands of Palestinians, not just to receive treatment but to shelter from the Israeli indiscriminate bombing of Gaza.
Overnight, Israeli forces bombed the vicinity of Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis with a series of air strikes and artillery shelling.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), which runs Al-Amal Hospital, said that the “humanitarian conditions in the Gaza and northern governorates are tragic as a result of the continued Israeli blockade that prevents the delivery of aid, as 800,000 Palestinians there suffer from a great scarcity of basic materials.”
Wafa reported that medical crews recovered the bodies of three Palestinians from under the rubble in Abasan Al-Kabira village, east of Khan Younis, following an Israeli bombardment. At least 7,000 Palestinians are missing or buried under the rubble in all areas of Gaza.
Israeli artillery also shelled for several hours in the vicinity of Al-Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, according to Wafa. Occupation forces bombed Al-Manara neighborhood in Khan Younis, Al-Shati camp, west of Gaza City, and the seaside of Deir al-Balah.
Hisham Zaqout, Al-Jazeera Arabic correspondent, said on Sunday morning that Israeli bombardment has not stopped in the Gaza Strip for the past 24 hours.
“The only time that Israeli forces did not bomb Gaza was during the [10 days] truce,” Zaqout said.
He added that the Israeli bombardment on Gaza since October left few Palestinian houses intact, which now became overcrowded shelters for displaced Palestinians, but remain at risk of being bombed.
“Al-Nasser Hospital is the most important hospital in the whole of Gaza Strip, following the destruction and damaging of hospitals in north and central Gaza,” Zaqout said.
“Al-Nasser is currently the biggest hospital and has the highest number of beds, doctors, operation rooms… Patients from Rafah, Deir Al-Balah, and refugee camps in central Gaza [rely on Al-Nasser for treatment],” he added.
“I do deny a Palestinian state. Always!”
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had doubled down on his refusal for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.
His government minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, was even more curt, writing on the X platform: “I do deny a Palestinian state. Always!”
Netanyahu wrote on X on Saturday: “I will not compromise on full Israeli security control over the entire area in the west of Jordan – and this is contrary to a Palestinian state.”
His comment came following a phone call with U.S. President Joe Biden, the first in nearly a month. Biden confirmed the unwavering U.S. support for Israel, and said that Netanyahu “didn’t say” that he opposed a two-state solution during their phone call.
Netanyahu has always been clear about his rejection of the establishment of a Palestinian state, which many Western leaders and officials are now seeing as the only hope to dampen conflicts in the Middle East and West Asia region.
The UK Minister of Defence, Grant Shapps, told the BBC on Sunday morning “Unless you pursue a two-state solution, I really don’t see that there is another solution.”
Shapps added that Netanyahu’s opposition was “very disappointing.” but “it’s not in some senses a surprise, [Netanyahu] spent his entire political career against a two-state solution.”
“Palestinians deserve a sovereign state, Israel deserves to have the full ability to defend itself, its own security,” he added.
“The Palestinian state is not just a name without content”
The UK, U.S., and EU are still refusing to call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Some Palestinian officials view such comments about the two-state solution as similar lip service as it has been since 1993 when the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) signed a peace deal with Israel.
The Palestinian head of the National Initiative Movement, Mustafa al-Barghouti, said that Biden’s statement about supporting a two-state solution was “nonsense.”
“The Palestinian state is not just a name without content, borders, sovereignty, and control over land, water, airspace, and borders,” Barghouti said.
“It cannot be achieved without removing the occupation and the settlements and settlers,” he added.
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders said that “despite the illegal and inhumane actions of Netanyahu’s government, President Biden has thus far offered unconditional support to Israel. That must change.”
France’s Foreign Minister also expressed support for the establishment of a Palestinian state, while the UN chief, Antonio Guterres said that “the right of the Palestinian people to build their own state must be recognised by all.
“The refusal to accept the two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians, and the denial of the right to statehood for the Palestinian people, are unacceptable,” Guterres said on Saturday.
In the UN General Assembly, there are currently 139 out of the 193 member states recognizing Palestine as an observer member.
WSJ reports Hamas fighters are resilient and have ammunition to fight for months
Thousands of Israelis demonstrated on Saturday in Tel Aviv calling for the release of Israeli captives held by Hamas in Gaza, the resignation of Netanyahu’s government, and for an early election.
Yair Lapid, the opposition leader, said Israel’s priority should be getting the captives back from Gaza, and then eradicating Hamas.
“If you want to eradicate Hamas, you must first take out the abductees,” he said.
Lapid, who served for a short stint as prime minister in 2022, said there was “full backing for any deal, no matter how painful it may be. And if the price is a cessation of hostilities, let that be the price.”
Aside from the sheer destruction and devastation of the Gaza Strip and the killing of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians, Israel has yet to achieve its goals in Gaza.
The U.S. intelligence agencies estimated that the goal to destroy Hamas will be hard to achieve, according to The Wall Street Journal report.
Israel killed around 20 to 30 percent of Hamas fighters, according to WSJ, however, the resistance movement remains resilient and has enough munitions to fight for months.
U.S. military analysts told WSJ that Hamas “fighters have adjusted their tactics, operating in smaller groups and hiding between ambushes on Israeli troops, while individual fighters are likely taking on more tasks to pick up the slack from their dead comrades.”
Israeli forces demolish homes of two Palestinians in Hebron
Israel approved on Sunday the transfer of Palestinian Authority (PA) tax revenues through Norway, the first such transfer since October.
Israel’s Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, had rejected U.S. calls to unfreeze PA funds that are essential for paying public sector salaries and those who work in the security services in the occupied West Bank.
According to agreements with the PA, Israel is in charge of collecting taxes on behalf of Ramallah, and it transfers the monthly sum of around $190 million, almost $75 million, which goes to paying salaries and public electricity bills in the Gaza Strip.
Israel withheld the PA tax revenue on several occasions, such as when it froze the funds during the Trump administration as a way to pressure the PA to accept the U.S. peace initiative, dubbed the Abraham Accords.
Ben-Gvir opposed the tax revenues transfer on Sunday as he argued that there were no assurances that the money deposited in Norway would not be transferred to Gaza.
Overnight, Israeli forces arrested dozens of Palestinians from several towns in the West Bank, including Arura, Bethlehem, Shufa’at and Qalandia refugee camps, and Maithalun village south of Jenin.
On Sunday morning, Israeli forces demolished the apartments of Nasr and Abdul Qadir al-Qawasmi in Hebron.
Wafa reported that Israeli forces stormed Ras al-Jura and Bir al-Mahjar neighborhoods.
In November, Nasr, 18, and Abdul Qadir, 26 al-Qawasmi, along with Hassan Mamoun Qafisha, 28, targeted an Israeli military checkpoint south of occupied Jerusalem, killing one soldier and injuring seven others. The three Palestinians were killed in the attack by Israeli forces.
This might explain the brutality and violence we are now seeing in the West Bank. Evil now wears the uniform, and given the weapons, the green light, and the blessings from their leaders, to terrorize, kill, and maim, those who have no means to resist the violence against them.
Let us keep in mind there was NO Hamas in the West Bank.
“Al-Aza’s uniformed neighbors are only two out of thousands of settlers drafted into the reserves when the war broke out. About 5,500 residents of the settlements have been drafted into the ranks of “regional defense” battalions [“Hagmar” battalions in Hebrew] to serve in their settlements and near neighboring Palestinian villages. They are now serving as part of the IDF in the West Bank. Their mobilization has expanded the ranks of the regional defense battalions fivefold – district-level units that are mainly composed of local residents, in this case settlers, who serve near their homes.
About 7,000 people are serving in the battalions, according to a military source. They include members of the settlements’ local security squads drafted in an emergency call-up. Alongside this large-scale mobilization, the IDF has distributed some 7,000 weapons to the battalions as well as to settlers who were not recruited into the army but received them as civilians whom the army considers eligible to carry military arms.”
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-01-17/ty-article-magazine/.premium/israels-army-drafted-thousands-of-settlers-accounts-of-their-violence-are-piling-up/0000018d-12e7-d260-aded-b7efddbe0000
Hamas explains: There was no choice but October 7
…..The Resistance movement explained that there were a plethora of reasons that pushed it to carry out the operation, including:
– The Israeli Juadization plans for the al-Aqsa Mosque and attempts to divide it.
– The actions of the extremist and right-wing Israeli government, which is taking practical steps toward usurping the entirety of the West Bank and occupied al-Quds amid plans to expel Palestinians from their homes.
– The thousands of Palestinians unjustly detained by the Israeli occupation and deprived of their most basic rights amid paramount assaults and humiliation.
– The unjust air, sea, and land blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip for the past 17 years.
– The expansion of Israeli settlements across the West Bank in an unprecedented manner.
– The daily escalations and violence perpetrated by settlers against Palestinians.
– The seven million displaced Palestinians living in horrific conditions in refugee camps and wish to return to their lands.
– The international community’s failure to establish and the complicity of major powers in preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Hamas argued that the Palestinian people could not be expected to keep waiting and counting on the United Nations, which it described as “helpless,” saying their only option was to “take the initiative in defending the Palestinian people, lands, rights, and sanctities.” Hamas underlined that its actions fall into self-defense, which is a right enshrined in international laws and conventions.
It did not start on Oct. 7
As is being echoed by the supporters of the Palestinian Resistance and cause alike, Hamas underlined that the plight of liberation did not start on October 7; “but started 105 years ago, including 30 years of British colonialism and 75 years of Zionist occupation.”
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/hamas-explains–there-was-no-choice-but-october-7
The long-suffering Palestinian people deserve their own state as a democracy for all. Where could it be, given that the Zionists have stolen most of the Palestinians’ land? The only option for that state is where Israel is right now. The Zionists, who seem to have endless amounts of money, can buy some land anywhere else. I no-one is willing to sell, tough luck.
Just to clarify, Israel did not bomb two more hospitals in Gaza. In truth Israel bombed and shelled “in the vicinity of” Al-Amal and Al-Nasser Hospitals.