Updates: Netanyahu reports progress on captive deal but offers no timeline

There is an ongoing siege of northern Gaza by the Israeli army that has left Palestinians in Beit Hanoon, Beit Lahiya and Jabalia severed from essential services for more than 70 days.

Here is what you need to know:

• Israel launched the assault in northern Gaza on October 6, saying it aimed to stop Hamas from regrouping.
• Israel demanded civilians leave their homes and flee south, including to the already overcrowded “humanitarian zone” in al-Mawasi, near Khan Younis.
• Since then, civilians under constant deadly bombardments have been denied the right to their homes, food, water, medical support and safe travel.
• Aid agencies, rights groups and observers say Israel appears to be employing the “General’s Plan”, a strategy touted by a retired member of the Israeli military suggesting the army forcibly empties northern Gaza of its entire population and regards anyone remaining as an enemy fighter.
• On Thursday, the UN aid coordination office reported that Israeli authorities denied another UN request to reach besieged areas of the North Gaza governorate to deliver food and water.
• Israeli forces have been intermittently attacking Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of the few medical facilities still operational in the area. The attacks intensified on Saturday, and Israeli troops now surround the hospital.

My grandfather, Hamdi, was just eight when his family fled Bir al-Sabaa, a town in southern Palestine once known for its fertile land and agricultural life.

In October 1948, several months after European-Zionist forces had proclaimed the creation of Israel, Israeli troops attacked Bir al-Sabaa, forcing thousands of Palestinians, including my grandfather’s family, to flee under the threat of being massacred.

Hamdi’s family fled on foot and by horse-drawn cart. What they thought would be a few weeks of displacement turned into permanent exile. Just like 700,000 other Palestinians, they were survivors of what we now call the Nakba.

Hamdi’s family found refuge in Gaza, where they stayed in temporary shelters and with extended family.

Seventy-five years after my grandfather’s experience of painful displacement, sorrow, and a struggle to survive, my family and I fell victim to the Nakba as well.

Read the full opinion piece here.

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are now reporting that about 20 people have been injured by Israeli shelling of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the besieged north of the Gaza Strip.

We will bring you more information as we get it.

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that Israeli forces are now firing at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya and blowing up buildings in its vicinity.

Earlier, we reported that the Israeli military had ordered the emptying and closure of the hospital in besieged northern Gaza.

Hussam Abu Safia, the director of the hospital, also released a statement earlier in which he said: “The bombing continues from all directions, affecting the building, the departments, and the staff. This is a serious and extremely horrifying situation.

“The world must understand that our hospital is being targeted with the intent to kill and forcibly displace us. We urge the international community to intervene quickly and stop this fierce assault on us, to protect the healthcare system, the workers, and the patients within it,” he said.

Earlier, we reported that four people were killed when the Israeli army bombed a group of aid workers in the central Gaza Strip city.

We can now report that the deaths occurred when Israeli drones attacked an aid convoy on Salah al-Din Street in the eastern part of the city, approximately 1km (0.6 miles) from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

The people who were killed were security guards, and in addition, three other security guards were injured.

The aid trucks, operated by various collaborating NGOs, were en route to designated distribution points in the central area of the Gaza Strip when a vehicle in the convoy was bombed.

We have been reporting on Israeli attacks on the medical facility, which is an essential lifeline in Gaza’s besieged north.

But it is not the first time it has come under attack. Here are some other instances:

• On December 4, 2023, four people were killed and nine wounded in an Israeli strike on the north gate of the hospital.
• On December 10, 2023, Israeli forces raided the hospital after besieging and shelling it for several days.
• On May 22, Israeli missiles struck the emergency department of the hospital, prompting panicked staff to rush patients on beds and stretchers onto the rubble-strewn street outside.
• On May 24, our correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum said the hospital was hit twice by Israeli artillery during a siege.
• On May 25, Dr Hussam Abu Safia, the facility’s director, told Al Jazeera that Israeli forces were still surrounding the hospital and the siege had put it out of service.
• On October 24, Israeli tanks fired shells at the hospital before raiding it the next day.
• On November 29, an Israeli drone killed Dr Ahmed al-Kahlout, the director of the hospital’s intensive care unit, as he was reportedly passing through the gate.
• On December 6, four staff members were killed when several air strikes hit the hospital and Israeli forces stormed the facility.

The organisation says in a statement on Telegram that it recovered the bodies of four deceased people near the gold market in the centre of Gaza City.

The people were killed in an Israeli attack on a home belonging to the Siyam family, the statement said.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has admitted Israel’s assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh for the first time publicly.

Haniyeh was killed in July in Tehran along with a bodyguard when the house he was staying in was targeted.

He had been in the Iranian capital to attend the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Netanyahu is “moving to a position where he has to accept a deal soon”, Rami Khoury, a distinguished fellow at the American University of Beirut, told Al Jazeera.

Sticking to his military strategy “has not brought him the political dividends that he needs for his Israeli public audience,” he said.

The Israeli government hasn’t been able to work out a political strategy that matches their perceived prowess in the military field, which is based on US support, he said.

“It’s unbelievable that with the total power of the US and Israel and some assistance from the UK and Germany and others, that Hamas has not surrendered,” he said.

“The Israelis are moving to the point where they can politically accept the key Hamas requirements, and they, in return, get what they want, which is permanent security guarantees from the United States, with some arrangements that might spill over into the Arab region,” he said.