Updates: Israeli snipers fire at north Gaza hospital staff, director says

For more on how Israeli forces killed Khaled Nabhan, a grandfather who mourned the loss of his granddaughter in Gaza last year, calling her the “soul of my soul”, read this.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has denounced Israel’s killing of four Palestinian journalists in Gaza over the past week, bringing the total number of journalists killed in the enclave to at least 137. For more, read this.

And for a continuation of our live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, go here.

We will be closing this live page soon. Here is a recap of today’s developments:

• The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in besieged northern Gaza has said that Israeli forces fired at staff in the intensive care unit, targeting the hospital power generators.
• Israeli forces struck several Palestinian homes, including two in Gaza City, killing at least seven people.
• Palestinian Authority forces have continued a raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, while suppressing demonstrations in the city that called for an end to the raid as well as a siege that has been imposed on the camp.
• An Israeli delegation has reportedly travelled to Qatar for talks with mediators on a potential ceasefire.
• Several countries, including Qatar, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, have slammed Israel’s plans to increase the number of settlements in the occupied Golan Heights.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has denounced Israel’s killing of four Palestinian journalists in Gaza over the past week as the Israeli military intensifies its bombardment of the besieged territory.

The United States-based watchdog said in a statement today that the international community has failed to hold Israel accountable for its actions amid the growing death toll of journalists and civilians in Gaza.

“At least 95 journalists and media workers have been killed worldwide in 2024,” CPJ’s CEO Jodie Ginsberg said.

“Israel is responsible for two-thirds of those deaths and yet continues to act with total impunity when it comes to the killing of journalists and its attacks on the media.”

The remarks came a day after Israeli forces killed Ahmed al-Louh, a 39-year-old Palestinian journalist who worked for Al Jazeera as a cameraman in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

Over the previous days, Israel also killed journalists Mohammed Balousha, Mohammed Jabr al-Qrinawi and Eman Shanti.

The director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Cindy McCain, says last month that only one-third of trucks carrying WFP aid made it into the enclave.

“North Gaza was hit hardest – just two trucks reached thousands of hungry people,” McCain said in a post on X.

“Safe, unfettered access at scale is needed to save lives & avert famine,” she said.

2M people are facing acute hunger across Gaza.

Last month, only 1/3 of trucks needed to deliver @WFP’s food made it into Gaza.

North Gaza was hit hardest—just 2 trucks reached thousands of hungry people. Safe, unfettered access at scale is needed to save lives & avert famine. pic.twitter.com/L1rljCDdgW

— Cindy McCain (@WFPChief) December 16, 2024

The Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (Kan) reports that Israel is preparing for a military offensive due to the group’s continued missile and drone attacks.

The announcement came after Israel intercepted a ballistic missile and a drone launched by the Houthis earlier in the day.

The Houthis said the attack was in response to Israel’s “massacres” against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, where Israel has been waging a war for more than a year, killing more than 45,000 people.

“The Houthis have assumed the mantle of attacking Israel on behalf of the entire Iranian axis,” Kan said, citing the weakened positions of Syria’s ousted al-Assad regime and Hezbollah in Lebanon as contributing factors.

Kan also reported a consensus within Israel’s security establishment to strike back at Houthi targets.

The US military says it has “conducted a precision airstrike against a key command and control facility operated by Iran-backed Houthis within Houthi-controlled territory in Sanaa, Yemen” in a post on X.

“The targeted facility was a hub for coordinating Houthi operations, such as attacks against US Navy warships and merchant vessels in the Southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden” it said.

CENTCOM Conducts Precision Airstrike Against Iran-Backed Houthi Facility in Yemen

On Dec. 16 Yemen time, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted a precision airstrike against a key command and control facility operated by Iran-backed Houthis within Houthi-controlled… pic.twitter.com/DlZ9SQcAqX

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) December 16, 2024

Israeli soldiers fired tear gas canisters towards residents and their homes in the town of Abu Dis, the Wafa news agency says.

It quoted the town’s mayor as saying several people have suffered from tear gas inhalation.

The family of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old activist shot and killed in the occupied West Bank by Israeli military forces in September, has expressed frustration after meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The US diplomat “was attentive in listening to us and, unfortunately, repeated a lot of the same things that we’ve been hearing for the past 20 years, particularly since Rachel Corrie’s killing, who is also a Washington State resident, like my wife” Eygi’s husband Hamid Ali told reporters after the meeting at the State Department.

Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American woman, was killed in 2003 by an Israeli bulldozer while protesting the demolition of Palestinian homes in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip.

“It’s frustrating to hear the same things again,” Ali said.

The meeting comes as the family continues to urge the Biden administration to launch an independent investigation into her killing, saying that she was killed in a deliberate attack during a peaceful protest.

Ozden Bennet, Eygi’s sister, said the US is still awaiting an Israeli investigation, which she said the family does not find “credible”.

Hamas has called the ongoing raid – launched by Palestinian Authority forces more than a week ago on the camp and Jenin Brigades fighters – a “national crime”.

In a statement, the group called on Palestinians and all factions to “break the siege and protect the fighters”.

It described the raid as tone-deaf, saying it does not reflect the Palestinian voices calling for an end to the incursion and for the protection of the “resistance” that stands up against “crimes” committed by Israeli forces and Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

Hamas urged factions to direct their “weapons and bullets towards the occupation” instead.

A strong statement from the US president-elect has implied that he will be taking action from the time he takes office on January 20th.

Donald Trump spoke as early as yesterday on the telephone with the Israeli prime minister.

He has also appointed Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who has been travelling in the region. He’s been to Saudi Arabia and Israel.

So the president-elect is keeping up to date with what is happening, staying in direct contact with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and also making very clear that he is going to take action in terms of those captives should they not be released by January 20th.

There’s been speculation that Netanyahu is waiting until Trump takes office before acting or agreeing to any form of move to get the captives out of Gaza. Trump himself denies it, as do the Israeli prime minister and his assistant, saying they want the captives out as soon as possible.

Several others were wounded in the attack that struck a residential home in the al-Sabra neighbourhood in the south of Gaza City, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.

The attack comes shortly after three others were killed in a separate strike on a home northwest of Gaza City.

Israel is shutting its embassy in Ireland, accusing the government of anti-Israel policies.

Dublin has strongly opposed the war on Gaza and recognised a Palestinian state.

It rejects Israel’s accusations and says it stands for human rights and international law.

So what’s behind this move? And why now?

Watch Al Jazeera’s Inside Story here:

The Palestinian news agency Wafa, citing local sources, reports that an 18-year-old Palestinian from Nablus’s Askar refugee camp has died of critical wounds he sustained earlier tonight after being shot by Israeli soldiers during an Israeli military incursion.

The news agency said that several Israeli military vehicles stormed two areas east of Nablus, firing live rounds, sound bombs and toxic tear gas canisters.

Palestinian Authority (PA) forces have fired what appears to be tear gas towards protesting crowds in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.

Demonstrators took to the streets to decry an ongoing siege on the nearby Jenin refugee camp, days after PA forces raided the camp and battled with Jenin Brigades fighters.

PA forces killed a commander named Yazid Ja’ayseh and injured several people.

Jenin and its adjacent refugee camp are a stronghold for armed factions, including the Jenin Brigades, who are seen as a more effective resistance to the Israeli occupation, in contrast with the PA, which coordinates security matters with Israel.

The camp has also seen increasing crackdowns by Israeli forces, which have intensified in scale since October last year.

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Human rights groups say Israel is using quadcopters to kill Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Multiple videos show people being shot at by drones fitted with guns.

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