At least eight individuals had been killed by Israeli navy operations within the northern West Bank across the metropolis of Tulkarem on Tuesday, the Palestinian Health Ministry stated, together with three individuals it stated had been killed by Israeli airstrikes.
The Israeli navy stated it opened fireplace after militants attacked troopers, and it was conscious of some uninvolved civilians who had been harmed within the raid.
Elsewhere within the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian metropolis of Bethlehem was marking a second somber Christmas Eve underneath the shadow of the conflict in Gaza, with most festivities cancelled and crowds of vacationers absent.
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Israel’s bombardment and floor invasion in Gaza has killed over 45,000 Palestinians, greater than half of them ladies and youngsters, based on Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between fighters and civilians in its depend.
Winter is hitting the Gaza Strip and most of the almost 2 million Palestinians displaced by the devastating 15-month conflict with Israel are struggling to guard themselves from the wind, chilly and rain.
The conflict in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s assault on southern Israel in October 2023, throughout which about 1,200 individuals had been killed and 250 taken hostage by Palestinian militants. Around 100 hostages are nonetheless being held in Gaza, though solely two thirds are believed to nonetheless be alive.
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Israeli raid and airstrikes kill at the least 8 Palestinians in West Bank, well being officers say
NUR SHAMS REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank — The Palestinian Health Ministry stated at the least eight individuals had been killed by Israeli navy operations in and across the metropolis of Tulkarem within the northern West Bank on Tuesday. The ministry reported three of the lifeless had been killed by airstrikes.
The Israeli navy stated it opened fireplace after militants attacked troopers, and it was conscious of some uninvolved civilians who had been harmed within the raid.
An Associated Press photojournalist captured pictures of Israeli forces detonating an explosive system planted by Palestinian militants throughout a raid within the Nur Shams refugee camp.
Israel has carried out a number of large-scale raids within the West Bank because the begin of the conflict in Gaza, ignited by Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel. While airstrikes had been as soon as uncommon within the West Bank, they’ve grown extra widespread because the outbreak of conflict as Israeli forces clamp down, saying they goal to forestall assaults on their residents.
Israeli fireplace has killed at the least 800 Palestinians within the occupied West Bank since October 2023, Palestinian well being officers say. In that point, Palestinian militants have launched various assaults on troopers at checkpoints and inside Israel.
Syrians have a good time Christmas and dream of ‘a brand new start for Syria’
SAYDNAYA, Syria — A big crowd of Syrians gathered close to a historic monastery in Saydnaya on Christmas Eve to witness the lighting of a towering tree adorned with glowing inexperienced lights.
Tuesday’s celebration supplied a uncommon second of pleasure in a metropolis scarred by over a decade of conflict and an notorious jail, the place tens of 1000’s had been held. Families and mates stood beneath the illuminated tree — some sporting Santa hats, others watching from rooftops — whereas a band performed festive music and fireworks lit up the sky
“This 12 months is totally different, there’s happiness, victory and a brand new start for Syria and a brand new start for Christ,” stated Houssam Saadeh, one attendee.
Another, Joseph Khabbaz, expressed hope for unity throughout all sects and religions in Syria, dismissing current Christmas tree vandalism as “remoted incidents.”
Earlier within the afternoon, pilgrims visited the historic Our Lady of Saydnaya Monastery, one of many world’s oldest Christian monasteries, believed to be constructed within the sixth century.
In Homs, a equally grand Christmas tree was illuminated as safety officers patrolled the world to make sure a secure and peaceable gathering, based on Syria’s state media.
UN says Israeli assaults on North Gaza have a devastating impression on Palestinian civilians
UNITED NATIONS — Recent assaults on hospitals in North Gaza, the place Israel is finishing up an offensive, are having a devastating impression on Palestinian civilians nonetheless within the space, the U.N. humanitarian workplace says.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs expressed deep concern at stories that the Israeli navy entered the Indonesian Hospital on Tuesday, forcing its evacuation.
The humanitarian workplace, referred to as OCHA, additionally expressed deep concern at assaults reported in current days in and across the two different hospitals in North Gaza which might be minimally functioning – Al Awda and Kamal Adwan.
OCHA stated the Israeli siege on Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia and elements of Jaballiya in North Gaza continued for a 79th day on Tuesday, and whereas the U.N. and its companions have made 52 makes an attempt to coordinate humanitarian entry to besieged areas in December 48 had been rejected by Israel.
While 4 missions had been permitted, OCHA stated the U.N. and its companions confronted impediments on account of Israeli navy operations and “not one of the U.N.-coordinated makes an attempt to entry the world have been absolutely facilitated.”
Throughout the Gaza Strip, OCHA stated that Israeli authorities facilitated simply 40% of requests for humanitarian actions requiring their approval in December.
Global monitor says famine is weeks away in north Gaza. A US diplomat calls the warning ‘irresponsible’
WASHINGTON — A number one world meals disaster monitor says deaths from hunger will possible move famine ranges in north Gaza as quickly as subsequent month.
The U.S.-created Famine Early Warning System Network says that’s due to a near-total Israeli blockade of meals and different help in that a part of Gaza.
The discovering, nonetheless, seems to have uncovered a rift inside the Biden administration over the extent of hunger in northern Gaza.
The U.S. ambassador to Israel, Jacob Lew, disputes a part of the information utilized in reaching the conclusion and calls the intensified famine warning “irresponsible.”
Northern Gaza has been one of many areas hardest-hit by combating and Israel’s restrictions on help all through its 14-month conflict with Hamas militants.
Israel desires UN Security Council to sentence current assaults by Yemen’s Houthi rebels
UNITED NATIONS — Israel’s overseas minister has requested an emergency assembly of the U.N. Security Council to sentence current missile and drone assaults by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, and to sentence the group’s Iranian allies for allegedly offering the group with weapons.
Gideon Saar stated in a letter Tuesday to Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield of the United States, which holds the council presidency this month, that the Houthis are violating worldwide regulation and council resolutions.
“This Iranian-backed terrorist group continues to hazard Israel’s and different nations’ safety, in addition to the liberty of maritime navigation, in flagrant violation of worldwide regulation,” Saar stated. “All of this malign exercise is completed as a part of a broader technique to destabilize the area.”
The U.S. Mission to the United Nations didn’t instantly reply to an electronic mail asking when the council assembly will likely be held.
The Houthis have stated they launched assaults on delivery within the Red Sea – and on Israel — with the goal of ending Israel’s devastating air and floor offensive within the Gaza Strip. The Israeli conflict in Gaza adopted Hamas’ lethal October 2023 assaults in southern Israel.
Israeli navy says troops’ presence inadvertently contributed to Hamas killing 6 hostages in August
TEL AVIV, Israel — An Israeli navy investigation has concluded that the presence of troops inadvertently contributed to the deaths of six hostages killed by their Hamas captors in Gaza.
The hostages’ our bodies had been found in a tunnel in late August, an occasion that shook Israel and sparked a few of the largest anti-war protests because the conflict started.
The investigation discovered that the six hostages had been killed by a number of gunshots from their captors after surviving for almost 330 days. The Israeli navy’s “floor actions within the space, though gradual and cautious, had a circumstantial affect on the terrorists’ determination to homicide the six hostages,” the report discovered.
According to the investigation, the Israeli navy started working within the space the place the hostages had been being held in southern Gaza about two weeks earlier than their discovery, underneath the belief that the possibilities of hostages within the space was medium to low.
On August 27, hostage Qaid Farhan Alkadi was discovered alone in a tunnel, inflicting the Israeli navy to halt operations for twenty-four hours to find out if there could possibly be different hostages within the space. The navy found the opening resulting in the tunnel the place the our bodies of the six hostages had been positioned on August 30. A pathological report estimated the six hostages had been killed on August 29.
The six hostages killed had been Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, Ori Danino, and Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose American-Israeli mother and father grew to become a few of the most acknowledged spokespeople pleading for the hostages’ launch, together with addressing the Democratic National Convention days earlier than their son’s killing.
“The investigation printed tonight proves as soon as once more that the return of all hostages will solely be potential by a deal,” the Hostages Families Forum stated in response to the investigation. “Every passing second places the hostages’ lives in fast hazard.”
Israeli ceasefire negotiators are getting back from Qatar after ‘a big week,’ prime minister’s workplace says
JERUSALEM — The Israeli negotiating staff engaged on a ceasefire returned from Qatar to Israel on Tuesday, the prime minister’s workplace stated, after what it known as “a big week” of talks.
After months of impasse, the U.S., Qatar and Egypt resumed their mediation efforts in current weeks and reported larger willingness by the warring sides to succeed in a deal.
According to Egyptian and Hamas officers, the proposed settlement would happen in phases and embrace a halt in combating, an alternate of captive Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, and a surge in help to the besieged Gaza Strip.
Israel says Hamas is holding 100 hostages, over one-third of whom are believed to be lifeless.
On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated there was “some progress” in efforts to succeed in a deal, however added he didn’t understand how lengthy it could take.
Israeli troopers power sufferers to evacuate a hospital in northern Gaza, some on foot, Palestinian well being officers say
CAIRO — Israeli troopers took management of a hospital in remoted northern Gaza after forcing all of the sufferers and many of the docs to depart, the Palestinian Health Ministry stated Tuesday.
Some of the sufferers needed to stroll to a different hospital whereas others had been pushed by paramedics, based on Health Ministry spokesperson Zaher al-Wahidi. He didn’t specify what number of sufferers had evacuated.
The Israeli navy confirmed its troops had entered the Indonesian Hospital within the city of Jabaliya as a part of an operation looking for Hamas fighters. The military later stated its troopers had left the hospital.
The navy stated it had assisted with evacuating the sufferers and had not ordered the hospital closed. However, al-Wahidi stated just one physician and upkeep particular person had been left behind.
The Indonesian Hospital is one among three hospitals left largely inaccessible within the northernmost a part of Gaza as a result of Israel has imposed a decent siege there since launching an offensive in early October.
The Israeli military stated Tuesday’s operation on the Indonesian Hospital got here after militants carried out assaults from the hospital for the previous month, together with launching anti-tank missiles and planting explosive units within the surrounding space. The Health Ministry accused Israel of “besieging and instantly concentrating on” the three hospitals in northern Gaza.
Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, stated Israeli drones detonated explosives close to the hospital and that 20 individuals had been wounded, together with 5 medical employees. The Israeli navy declined to touch upon the operation across the hospital.
Syrian Christians protest to demand larger protections after a Christmas tree is burned
DAMASCUS — Scores of Syrian Christians protested within the capital Damascus on Tuesday, demanding larger protections for his or her spiritual minority after a Christmas tree was set on fireplace within the metropolis of Hama a day earlier.
Many of the insurgents who now rule Syria are jihadis, though Ahmad al-Sharaa, the chief of the primary insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has renounced longtime ties to al-Qaida and spent years depicting himself as a champion of pluralism and tolerance.
It stays unclear who set the Christmas tree on fireplace Monday, which was condemned by a consultant of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham who visited the city and addressed the neighborhood.
“This act was dedicated by people who find themselves not Syrian, and they are going to be punished past your expectations,” the HTS consultant stated in a video extensively shared on social media. “The Christmas tree will likely be absolutely restored by this night.”
On Tuesday, protesters marched by the streets of Bab Touma in Damascus, shouting slogans in opposition to overseas fighters and carrying massive wood crosses.
“We demand that Syria be for all Syrians. We need a voice in the way forward for our nation,” stated Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II of the Syriac Orthodox Church as he addressed the group in a church courtyard, assuring them of Christians’ rights in Syria.
Since HTS led a swift offensive that overthrew President Bashar Assad earlier this month, Syria’s minority communities have been on edge, unsure of how they are going to be handled underneath the rising rebel-led authorities.
“We are right here to demand a democratic and free authorities for one individuals and one nation,” one other protester stated. “We stand united — Muslims and Christians. No to sectarianism.”
Qatar says Gaza ceasefire negotiations are ongoing
DOHA — Qatar’s Foreign Ministry stated that ceasefire negotiations to finish the conflict in Gaza had been ongoing in Doha in cooperation with Egyptian, Qatari, and American mediators.
“We is not going to depart any door unopened in pursuit of reaching an settlement,” stated Majid al-Ansari, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Tuesday.
Al Ansari added that rumors the ceasefire could be reached earlier than Christmas are “hypothesis.”
The ceasefire negotiations come at a time when winter is hitting the Gaza Strip and most of the almost 2 million Palestinians displaced by the devastating 15-month conflict with Israel are struggling to guard themselves from the wind, chilly and rain. Families of the roughly 100 hostages who’ve been held for 445 days in Gaza are additionally apprehensive their family members is not going to survive one other winter.
In a press convention, al-Ansari additionally known as on the worldwide neighborhood to carry sanctions on Syria as shortly as potential on Tuesday.
“The purpose was the crimes of the earlier regime, and that regime, with all of its authority, is not in place, therefor the causes for these sanctions not exist at present,” he stated.
US journalist lacking in Syria since 2012 is believed to be alive, says help group
DAMASCUS, Syria — American journalist Austin Tice is believed to be nonetheless alive, based on the top of a world help group.
Nizar Zakka, who runs the Hostage Aid Worldwide group, stated there has by no means been any proof that Tice, who has been lacking since 2012, is lifeless.
Zakka informed reporters in Damascus on Tuesday that Tice was alive in January and being held by the authorities of ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad. He added that U.S. President Joe Biden stated in August that Tice was alive.
Zakka stated he believes Tice was transferred between safety businesses over the previous 12 years, together with in an space the place Iranian-backed fighters had been working.
Asked if it was potential Tice had been taken in another country, Zakka stated Assad almost certainly stored him in Syria as a possible bargaining chip.
Biden stated Dec. 8 that his administration believed Tice was alive and was dedicated to bringing him house, though he additionally acknowledged that “we’ve no direct proof” of his standing.
A former Israeli hostage dies
TEL AVIV, Israel — Hannah Katzir, an Israeli girl who was taken hostage on Oct. 7, 2023, and freed in a short ceasefire final 12 months, has died. She was 78.
The Hostages Families Forum, a gaggle representing the households of individuals taken captive, confirmed the demise Tuesday however didn’t disclose the trigger.
Her daughter, Carmit Palty Katzir, stated in a press release that her mom’s “coronary heart couldn’t face up to the horrible struggling since Oct. 7.”
Katzir’s husband, Rami, was killed in the course of the assault by militants who raided their house in Kibbutz Nir Oz. Her son Elad was additionally kidnapped and his physique was recovered in April by the Israeli navy, who stated he had been killed in captivity.
She spent 49 days in captivity and was freed in late November 2023. Shortly after Katzir was freed, her daughter informed Israeli media that she had been hospitalized with coronary heart points attributed to “troublesome situations and hunger” whereas she was held captive.
Israeli air protection system intercepts projectile launched from Yemen
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s navy stated the projectile was intercepted earlier than crossing into Israeli territory, however it set off air raid sirens in a single day within the nation’s populous central space, sending residents in search of cowl.
Israel’s rescue service Magen David Adom stated a 60-year-old girl was critically wounded after being damage on her approach to a protected house.
There was no fast remark from Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
It was the third time in every week that fireplace from Yemen set off sirens in Israel. On Saturday, a missile slammed right into a playground in Tel Aviv, injuring 16, after Israel’s air protection system didn’t intercept it.
Earlier final week, Israeli jets struck Yemen’s rebel-held capital and a port metropolis, killing 9. Israel stated the strikes had been in response to earlier Houthi assaults.
