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Israeli strikes kill at least 42 in Gaza as ceasefire talks set to resume in Qatar

Update Israeli strikes kill at least 42 in Gaza as ceasefire talks set to resume in Qatar
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Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Al Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on Friday. (Reuters)
Update Israeli strikes kill at least 42 in Gaza as ceasefire talks set to resume in Qatar
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Hospital staff say at least 30 people, including children, were killed in Gaza by Israeli strikes overnight and Friday morning. (REUTERS)
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Updated 03 January 2025

Israeli strikes kill at least 42 in Gaza as ceasefire talks set to resume in Qatar

Israeli strikes kill at least 42 in Gaza as ceasefire talks set to resume in Qatar
  • Israel said missiles were fired into the country from Yemen, which set off air raid sirens in Jerusalem and central Israel and sent people scrambling to shelters
  • Hospital staff say at least 30 people, including children, were killed in Gaza by Israeli strikes overnight and Friday morning

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Israeli strikes killed at least 42 people in Gaza, including children, overnight and into Friday, hospital and emergency response workers said, as health workers and Israel’s military traded claims over reported evacuation orders for two hospitals in the territory’s largely isolated north.
The assertions over Al-Awda and Indonesian hospitals occurred as stalled ceasefire talks to end nearly 15 months of war were set to resume in Qatar.
Staff at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said that more than a dozen women and children were killed in strikes in central Gaza, including in Nuseirat, Zawaida, Maghazi and Deir Al-Balah. Dozens of people were killed across the enclave the previous day.
“We woke up to the missile strike. We found the whole house disintegrated,” Abdul Rahman Al-Nabrisi said in the Maghazi refugee camp.




An Israeli strike hits Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Friday. (Reuters)

Later Friday, officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said that an airstrike killed three people in a car in Zawaida in central Gaza. And the Civil Defense, first responders affiliated with the Hamas-run government, said that an airstrike killed seven people, including four children and a woman, in the Shijaiyah neighborhood outside Gaza City, and another strike killed two people at Al-Samer junction in Gaza City.
The Israeli army said in a statement that during the past day it had struck dozens of Hamas gathering points and command centers throughout Gaza. And it warned people to leave an area of central Gaza, saying that it would attack following launches toward Israel. The military said that a few projectiles entered from central and northern Gaza, with no injuries reported.
Freelance journalist Omar Al-Derawi was among those killed Friday. A press vest was placed on his shroud. The Committee to Protect Journalists said last month that more than 130 Palestinian reporters have been killed in the war.
Israelis also woke up to attacks. Israel said that missiles were fired from Yemen, setting off air raid sirens in Jerusalem and central Israel and sending people scrambling to shelters. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen often claim responsibility.

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While the UN Security Council met Friday to discuss the war’s effects on hospitals in Gaza, a hospital in the north, Al-Awda, said in a statement that Israel’s military had told staff and patients to immediately evacuate. It didn’t give details.
And a nurse at the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza told The Associated Press they had received orders to evacuate. Speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly, the nurse said that they were still there with 19 people, including eight patients, and staffers had asked for ambulances.
Israel’s military said that it wasn’t “operating to evacuate” Al-Awda or Indonesian hospitals.
“Messages were sent to reiterate to officials in the health authorities that there is no need to evacuate the hospital,” it said of Indonesian.
Neither side’s statements could be immediately verified. The Israeli military heavily restricts the movements of Palestinians in Gaza and has barred foreign journalists from entering the territory throughout the war, making it difficult to verify information.
The war’s effect on hospitals has been a contentious issue as the health system has been largely devastated. Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of operating out of hospitals and said that the military tries to protect the facilities. The military has carried out raids on several hospitals, including Al-Awda and Indonesian, during the war.
UN human rights chief Volker Türk told the Security Council on Friday that a recent report by his office documented “at least 136 strikes on at least 27 hospitals and 12 other medical facilities in Gaza, which caused significant death and injury among doctors, nurses, medical staff and other civilians and damaged or destroyed many of the buildings targeted.” He said both sides must protect the facilities.
Indirect ceasefire negotiations were expected to resume Friday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has said that he authorized a delegation from the Mossad intelligence agency, the Shin Bet internal security agency and the military to continue negotiations in Qatar.
The US-led talks have repeatedly stalled. Netanyahu has vowed to press ahead in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed. But the militants, while greatly weakened, have repeatedly regrouped, often after Israeli forces withdraw from areas.
The war was sparked by Hamas-led militants’ attack into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. They killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third believed to be dead.
Israel’s offensive in retaliation has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which says women and children make up more than half the dead. The ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally.
Israel’s military says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in dense residential areas. The army says it has killed 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war has caused widespread destruction and displaced about 90 percent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, many of them multiple times. Winter has now arrived, and hundreds of thousands are sheltering in tents near the sea.


WFP warns of ‘catastophic conditions’ in Somalia as funding dwindles

Updated 4 sec ago

WFP warns of ‘catastophic conditions’ in Somalia as funding dwindles

WFP warns of ‘catastophic conditions’ in Somalia as funding dwindles
  • Millions of people in Somalia face worsening hunger as major cuts to donor aid leave the World Food Programme with a critical funding shortfall, the UN agency warned Friday
NAIROBI: Millions of people in Somalia face worsening hunger as major cuts to donor aid leave the World Food Programme with a critical funding shortfall, the UN agency warned Friday.
The Horn of Africa nation is among the most vulnerable to climate change, according to the United Nations, and in the last five years has experienced both the worst drought in four decades and once-in-a-century flooding.
In November, 750,000 people — more than two thirds of the current number — will be cut off from the WFP emergency food program.
That could “tip those worst affected into catastrophic conditions,” the agency said.
“We are seeing a dangerous rise in emergency levels of hunger, and our ability to respond is shrinking by the day,” said Ross Smith, WFP’s director of emergency preparedness and response, in a statement.
WFP leads the largest humanitarian operation in Somalia and supports more than 90 percent of the country’s food security response.
“The current level of response is far below what is required to meet the growing needs,” Smith said.
Government data released in August shows that 4.4 million people are facing acute food insecurity in the conflict-ravaged nation.
With about 1.7 million children under five already acutely malnourished — including 466,000 in critical condition — WFP said only 180,000 are currently receiving its nutritional treatment, a number that could fall even further.
Cuts to foreign aid by the United States and other Western countries this year have worsened funding problems in many developing nations.
British charity Save the Children warned in May that funding shortfalls would force it to shut more than a quarter of its health and nutrition facilities in Somalia.

Israeli claims of Gaza safe zones ‘farcical’, UN says they’re ‘places of death’

Israeli claims of Gaza safe zones ‘farcical’, UN says they’re ‘places of death’
Updated 34 min 39 sec ago

Israeli claims of Gaza safe zones ‘farcical’, UN says they’re ‘places of death’

Israeli claims of Gaza safe zones ‘farcical’, UN says they’re ‘places of death’
  • The United Nations on Friday insisted there was no safe place for Palestinians ordered to leave Gaza City and that Israel-designated zones in the south were “places of death“

GENEVA: The United Nations on Friday insisted there was no safe place for Palestinians ordered to leave Gaza City and that Israel-designated zones in the south were “places of death.”
“The notion of a safe zone in the south is farcical,” UNICEF spokesman James Elder told reporters in Geneva, speaking from the Gaza Strip, pointing out that “bombs are dropped from the sky with chilling predictability; schools, which had been designated as temporary shelters are regularly reduced to rubble, (and) tents... are regularly engulfed in fire from air attacks.”


Last Gaza flotilla boat intercepted by Israeli troops say organizers

Last Gaza flotilla boat intercepted by Israeli troops say organizers
Updated 30 min 9 sec ago

Last Gaza flotilla boat intercepted by Israeli troops say organizers

Last Gaza flotilla boat intercepted by Israeli troops say organizers
  • The organizers of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla said Israel intercepted its last remaining boat on Friday, after the interceptions of its fellow vessels drew protests worldwide

JERUSALEM: The organizers of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla said Israel intercepted its last remaining boat on Friday, after the interceptions of its fellow vessels drew protests worldwide.
“Marinette, the last remaining boat of the Global Sumud Flotilla, was intercepted at 10:29 am (0729 GMT) local time, approximately 42.5 nautical miles from Gaza,” the flotilla said on Telegram, adding that Israeli naval forces had “illegally intercepted all 42 of our vessels — each carrying humanitarian aid, volunteers, and the determination to break Israel’s illegal siege on Gaza.”


Boat from intercepted Gaza aid flotilla docks in Cyprus

Boat from intercepted Gaza aid flotilla docks in Cyprus
Updated 03 October 2025

Boat from intercepted Gaza aid flotilla docks in Cyprus

Boat from intercepted Gaza aid flotilla docks in Cyprus
  • The vessel carrying 21 foreigners asked to dock in Larnaca for refueling and humanitarian reasons, a government spokesperson said on X

ATHENS: A boat from a flotilla that had been carrying aid to Gaza until it was intercepted by Israel has docked in Cyprus, the Mediterranean island’s government said on Friday.
The vessel carrying 21 foreigners asked to dock in Larnaca for refueling and humanitarian reasons, a government spokesperson said on X.
He did not identify the boat, or say whether it had been among those stopped by the Israeli military.
After registering all the passengers, Cyprus provided for their basic needs and offered consular assistance, he added. Israel faced international condemnation and protest on Thursday after it intercepted most of the 40 or so boats in the flotilla and detained more than 450 activists from Italy, Spain and other countries, including Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg. It said the activists would be deported.
Italy said on Thursday that the activists were likely to be sent to European capitals on charter flights on Monday and Tuesday. Four Italian parliamentarians were released and due to fly to Rome on Friday.


Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza as Hamas considers its response to Trump’s peace proposal

Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza as Hamas considers its response to Trump’s peace proposal
Updated 03 October 2025

Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza as Hamas considers its response to Trump’s peace proposal

Israeli strikes kill dozens in Gaza as Hamas considers its response to Trump’s peace proposal

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 57 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, health officials said Thursday, as Hamas was still considering its response to US President Donald Trump’s proposal for ending the nearly two-year war.
The plan requires Hamas to return all 48 hostages — about 20 of them thought by Israel to be alive — give up power and disarm in return for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and an end to fighting. However, the proposal, which has been accepted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sets no path to Palestinian statehood.
Palestinians long for the war to end but many believe the plan favors Israel, and a Hamas official told The Associated Press that some elements were unacceptable, without elaborating. Qatar and Egypt, two key mediators, said it requires more negotiations on certain elements.
Israel intercepts activist aid flotilla
At least 29 people were killed by Israeli fire in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies. Officials there said 14 of them were killed in an Israeli military corridor where there have been frequent shootings around the distribution of humanitarian aid.
Officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central city of Deir Al-Balah said they had received 16 dead from Israeli strikes.
Doctors Without Borders said one of its occupational therapists was killed while waiting for a bus in Deir Al-Balah, in a strike that seriously wounded four other people. The international charity described Omar Hayek, 42, as a “quiet man of profound kindness and professionalism.”
Hayek, who had recently fled south from Gaza City, is the 14th staffer from the organization to have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, it said.
In Gaza City, health officials at Shifa Hospital said they received five bodies and several wounded people, adding that its staff are having difficulties reaching the hospital as Israel wages a major offensive aimed at occupying the city.
Other hospitals reported an additional seven deaths from Israeli fire. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which says it only strikes militants and accuses Hamas of putting civilians in danger by operating in populated areas.
Israel has meanwhile intercepted most of the more than 40 vessels in a widely watched flotilla carrying a symbolic amount of humanitarian aid for Palestinians and aiming to break Israel’s 18-year blockade of Gaza, according to organizers.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said on social media that activists on board – including Greta Thunberg and several European lawmakers – were safe and were being taken to Israel to begin “procedures” for their deportation.
In the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian militant was killed and another arrested on Thursday after they carried out a car-ramming and shooting attack on an Israeli army checkpoint, the military said, adding that no soldiers were wounded.
Awaiting word from Hamas
A senior Hamas official told The Associated Press on Wednesday that some points in the proposal agreed upon by Trump and Netanyahu are unacceptable and must be amended, without elaborating.
He said the official response will only come after consultations with other Palestinian factions. Speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media about the ongoing talks, the official said Hamas had conveyed its concerns to Qatar and Egypt.
The Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 that triggered the war killed some 1,200 people while 251 others were abducted. Most of the hostages have been freed under previous ceasefire deals.
The Trump plan would guarantee the flow of humanitarian aid and promises reconstruction in Gaza, placing its more than 2 million Palestinians under international governance.
Mounting toll in Gaza
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 66,200 Palestinians and wounded nearly 170,000 others, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and militants in its toll, but has said women and children make up around half the dead.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government. UN agencies and many independent experts view its figures as the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.
Around 400,000 Palestinians have fled famine-stricken Gaza City since Israel launched a major offensive there last month. On Thursday morning, smoke could be seen in northern Gaza and people were fleeing the area headed south.
Israel’s defense minister on Wednesday ordered all remaining Palestinians to leave Gaza City, saying it was their “last opportunity” and that anyone who stayed would be considered a militant supporter.
While Hamas’ military capabilities have been vastly depleted, it still carries out sporadic attacks. On Wednesday, at least seven projectiles were launched into Israel from Gaza, but all were either intercepted or fell in open areas, with no reports of casualties, the Israeli military said.