Closing summary
It is coming up to 5.30pm in Gaza City and Tel Aviv. This blog will be closing shortly but you can keep follow the Guardian’s Middle East coverage here.
Peter Beaumont has the latest on today’s headline:
Here is a summary of today’s key updates:
Israeli airstrikes killed at least 43 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including 11 people in a tent encampment sheltering displaced families, medics said. They said the 11 included women and children in the al-Mawasi district, which was designated as a humanitarian zone for civilians earlier in the war between Israel and Hamas.
Among those killed in the al-Mawasi strike was the director general of Gaza’s police department, Mahmoud Salah, and his deputy, Hussam Shahwan, according to the Hamas-run Gaza interior ministry. “By committing the crime of assassinating the director general of police in the Gaza Strip, the occupation is insisting on spreading chaos … and deepening the human suffering of citizens,” Hamas added in a statement.
The Israeli military said it had conducted an intelligence-based strike in al-Mawasi, just west of the city of Khan Younis, and eliminated Shahwan, calling him the head of Hamas security forces in southern Gaza. It made no mention of Salah’s death.
Other Israeli airstrikes killed at least 26 Palestinians, including six in the interior ministry headquarters in Khan Younis and others in north Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, the al-Shati beach camp and central Gaza’s Maghazi camp. Israel’s military said it had targeted Hamas militants who intelligence indicated were operating in a command and control centre “embedded inside the Khan Younis municipality building in the humanitarian area”. The military has accused Gaza militants of using built-up residential areas for cover. Hamas denies this.
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of Unrwa, the UN’s refugee agency for Plaestinians, said today’s Israeli strikes were “another reminder that there is no humanitarian zone let alone a ‘safe zone’” in Gaza. He added: “Enough misleading and killing of civilians. Every day without a ceasefire will bring more tragedy.”
Later on Thursday, separate Israeli airstrikes killed at least four people in central Gaza City and two in its Zeitoun district, medics said. The latest deaths in Gaza came as the Palestinian Authority on the occupied West Bank ordered the suspension of broadcasts by the Qatar-based Al Jazeera across the Palestinian territories, accusing the network of incitement, official media reported. Al Jazeera is already banned from broadcasting from Israel amid a long-running feud with the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
The Al Jazeera news network issued a statement denouncing the Palestinian Authority for its decision to close the network’s office. It said: “The decision to freeze Al Jazeera’s work and prevent its journalists from conducting their duties is an attempt to hide the truth about events in the occupied territories, especially what is happening in Jenin and its camps.”
An Israeli hostage held by Gaza’s Islamic Jihad militant group has tried to take his own life, the spokesperson for the movement’s armed wing said in a video posted on Telegram on Thursday. One of the group’s medical teams intervened and prevented him from dying, the Al Quds Brigades spokesperson added, without going into any more detail on the hostage’s identity or current condition. Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz defended plans for a new conscription law in Israel after his predecessor Yoav Gallant announced yesterday he would resign from the Knesset over the issue. In a post to social media on Thursday morning Katz said: “There is no place for cynical political use of a moral issue like conscription into the IDF.”
Hebrew media outlet Ynet, citing Syrian media, on Thursday reported of an Israeli strike in the Syrian countryside west of Damascus. The claims have not been independently verified.
Lebanon’s National News Agency reports that Israeli forces fired two shells “targeting a house in the town of Beit Lif”, which is in the south of the country.
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of Unrwa, the UN’s refugee agency for Plaestinians, has issued a statement on today’s Israeli strikes.
He said:
Gaza: No place has been safe. No one has been safe since the war started in October 2023.
As the year begins, we got reports of yet another attack on al-Mawasi with dozens of people killed and injured.
Another reminder that there is no humanitarian zone let alone a “safe zone”. Enough misleading and killing of civilians. Every day without a ceasefire will bring more tragedy.”
Reporting for Al Jazeera from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, journalist Hani Mahmoud writes after the al-Mawasi strike that “not even a designated evacuation zone is safe for people”. He continues:
Attacks are everywhere. Over the past few hours, there have been an average of two attacks per hour. Many people are missing and trapped under piles of rubble. Victims are arriving at the hospital with severe burns and bleeding. Some made it to the emergency room and died moments later. There doesn’t seem to be an end to this bloodshed.
Hebrew media outlet Ynet, citing Syrian media, is carrying reports of an Israeli strike in the Syrian countryside west of Damascus. The claims have not been independently verified.
Al Jazeera has spoken to a Gaza ambulance driver about the scene after an Israeli airstrike hit a camp for displaced people in al-Mawasi. It quoted Saleem Abu Subha saying:
We immediately went to the place and found the injured lying on the ground, most of them children, as well as two female martyrs. About ten tents were damaged and scattered fires were visible.
Al Jazeera has been banned from operating inside Israel by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, and from operating in the Israeli-occupied West Bank by the Palestinian Authority.
At least 37 Palestinians killed across Gaza Strip by Israeli strikes
Israeli airstrikes killed at least 37 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including 11 people in a tent encampment sheltering displaced families, medics said.
They said the 11 included women and children in the Al-Mawasi district, which was designated as a humanitarian zone for civilians earlier in the war between Israel and Gaza’s ruling Hamas militant group, now in its 15th month.
The director general of Gaza’s police department, Mahmoud Salah, and his aide, Hussam Shahwan, were killed in the strike, according to the Gaza interior ministry.
“By committing the crime of assassinating the director general of police in the Gaza Strip, the occupation is insisting on spreading chaos in the (enclave) and deepening the human suffering of citizens,” it added in a statement.
The Israeli military said it had conducted an intelligence-based strike in Al-Mawasi, just west of the city of Khan Younis, and eliminated Shahwan, calling him the head of Hamas security forces in southern Gaza. It made no mention of Salah’s death.
Other Israeli airstrikes killed at least 26 Palestinians, including six in the interior ministry headquarters in Khan Younis and others in north Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, the Shati (Beach) camp and central Gaza’s Maghazi camp.
Israel’s military said it had targeted Hamas militants who intelligence indicated were operating in a command and control centre “embedded inside the Khan Younis municipality building in the Humanitarian Area”.
Asked about the reported 37 deaths, a spokesperson for the Israeli military said it followed international law in waging the war in Gaza and that it took “feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm”.
The military has accused Gaza militants of using built-up residential areas for cover. Hamas denies this.
Updated
Here are the latest images from Gaza:
In a statement Israel’s military has claimed that it launched a strike against a building being used by Hamas in Khan Younis.
On its official Telegram channel, the IDF said the operation was “an intelligence-based strike on Hamas terrorists who were operating in a control and command centre that was embedded inside the Khan Yunis municipality building in the humanitarian area.”
Palestinian media sources are reporting that six people were killed.
The claims have not been independently verified, and it has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of utilising “civilian infrastructure” in the Gaza Strip, which is one of the most densely populated territories in the world.
Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri has met with French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot in Beirut.
An Israeli hostage held by Gaza’s Islamic Jihad militant group has tried to take his own life, the spokesperson for the movement’s armed wing said in a video posted on Telegram on Thursday, Reuters reports.
One of the group’s medical teams intervened and prevented him from dying, the Al Quds Brigades spokesperson added, without going into any more detail on the hostage’s identity or current condition.
Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
At least 18 killed by Israeli airstrikes on Gaza including children
Palestinian and hospital officials say Israeli airstrikes killed at least 18 people in the Gaza Strip, including three children and two high-ranking officers in the Hamas-run police force, Associated Press reports.
One strike early Thursday hit a tent in an Israeli-declared “humanitarian zone” known as al-Mawasi, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are sheltering in tents during the cold and rainy winter.
In a statement Israel’s military said it had carried out what it described as “an intelligence-based strike” which had killed Hussam Shahwan, who it described as a terrorist. A statement from the Hamas-led interior ministry inside the Gaza Strip confirmed the death of the man who worked for the police.
Associated Press reports that Israel has repeatedly targeted the police inside Gaza, contributing to a breakdown of law and order in the territory that has made it difficult for humanitarian groups to deliver the limited amount of aid being allowed to pass into the territory by Israel.
In a separate Israeli strike at least eight Palestinian men were killed. They were reported to be members of local committees that help secure aid convoys. An Associated Press reporter at al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, which received the bodies, confirmed the toll.
The Hamas-led health authority in the Gaza Strip has raised the total death toll from Israel’s military campaign to at least 45,581 Palestinians, with 108,438 wounded since 7 October 2023.
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Israel’s military has issued a statement claiming to have killed Hussam Shahwan, who it described as a terrorist. It accused Hamas-led internal security forces inside the Gaza Strip of “conducting violent interrogations of the Gazan population, violating human rights and suppressing dissent within the organisation.”
Al Jazeera reported that the Hamas-led interior ministry earlier issued a statement saying Shahwan had been killed.
Al Jazeera reports that the Hamas-led interior ministry in Gaza has confirmed the deaths of the chief of Gaza’s police force Mahmoud Salah, and his deputy Hussam Shahwan after an Israeli strike.
It cites a statement from the ministry which claims “they were performing their humanitarian and national duty in serving our people.”
The statement continued:
By committing the assassination, the occupation continues to spread chaos in the Strip and deepen the human suffering of citizens. The police force is a civil protection force that works to provide services to citizens.
Israel’s military reports warning sirens sounding in kibbutz Holit, which is in the west of Israel, close to Rafah in the Gaza Strip and to Israel’s border with Egypt.
A statement on the IDF’s official Telegram channel said that the Israeli air defence “intercepted one projectile that crossed from the southern Gaza Strip.”
Local media reports that an Israeli drone has struck an area in southern Lebanon between Beit Lif and Yater.
Here is an image from the Gaza Strip this morning showing smoke rising from an Israeli strike on the territory.
Lebanon’s National News Agency reports that Israeli forces fired two shells “targeting a house in the town of Beit Lif”, which is in the south of the country.
The Al Jazeera news network has issued a statement denouncing the Palestinian Authority for its decision to close the network’s office.
Al Jazeera has previously been banned from operating inside Israel by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
In the statement Al Jazeera said:
Al Jazeera Media Network denounces the Palestinian Authority’s decision to freeze its work and coverage in the West Bank and considers this decision nothing but an attempt to dissuade the channel from covering the rapidly escalating events taking place in the occupied territories.
This decision comes following the ongoing campaign of incitement and intimidation by parties associated with the Palestinian Authority against Al Jazeera’s journalists and correspondents. The decision to freeze Al Jazeera’s work and prevent its journalists from conducting their duties is an attempt to hide the truth about events in the occupied territories, especially what is happening in Jenin and its camps. And - unfortunately – such decision comes align with the previous action taken by the Israeli government, which closed Al Jazeera’s office in Ramallah.
Al Jazeera is shocked by this decision, which comes at a time when the war on the Gaza Strip is still on going, and the systematic targeting and killing of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli occupation forces.
As of 31 December 2024, preliminary investigations by the Commitee to Protect Journalists claimed at least 146 journalists and media workers had been killed in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and Lebanon since 7 October 2023. It said the figures make it the deadliest period for journalists since it began gathering data in 1992.
Here are some of the latest images sent from Gaza over the newswires. At least 15 people have been reported killed by Israeli strikes in the last few hours.
Palestinian news agency reports four Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli strike on the al-Shati refugee camp, which is to the west of Gaza City in the north of the Gaza Strip.
It reports “Since dawn today, 15 citizens have been killed and dozens injured in the occupation’s bombing of various parts of the Gaza Strip, 11 of them in Khan Younis.”
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Israel’s military has issued statistics on the number of its troops killed in the past two years.
The number for 2023 is given as 558 soldiers killed, with 512 killed during “operational activity”. Writing for the Times of Israel, military correspondent Emanuel Fabian writes that this number “apparently including the hundreds who were killed during Hamas’s 7 October onslaught — and three in terror attacks”. 16 deaths were recorded as due to accidents.
The figure for 2024 is lower. Fabian writes “In 2024, the IDF recorded a total of 363 deaths in the military, including 295 in operational activity amid the war and 11 in terror attacks.”
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Lebanon’s National News Media reported on Thursday morning that “enemy drones are currently flying over the skies of the capital Beirut and the southern suburbs, at a low altitude.”
Israel’s military announced overnight that a warning siren regarding possible “hostile aircraft infiltration” in Israel’s southern port city of Eilat had been due to “a false identification”.
Defense minister Katz defends new conscription law after Gallant resigns from Knesset
Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz has defended plans for a new conscription law in Israel after his predecessor Yoav Gallant announced yesterday he would resign from the Knesset over the issue.
In a post to social media on Thursday morning Katz said “There is no place for cynical political use of a moral issue like conscription into the IDF.”
He continued:
The new conscription law, upon its completion, will bring about a historic turning point and the recruitment of tens of thousands of additional ultra-Orthodox members for significant service in the IDF for the first time.
Yesterday Gallant said the bill, which will allow some exemptions from military service for Orthodox men “contradicts the needs of the Israeli army and the security of the state of Israel.”
Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Gallant in November 2024.
At least ten reported killed by Israeli strike on al-Mawasi 'safe zone'
An Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 Palestinians in a tent encampment sheltering displaced families in the southern Gaza Strip early on Thursday, medics said, Reuters reports.
The director-general of Gaza’s police department Mahmoud Salah, and his aide Hussam Shahwan were killed in the airstrike, Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV reported. Israel has not commented directly on the strike.
15 Palestinians were reported wounded in the attack.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli quadcopters were firing in Gaza City, and that Israel’s military “continues to blow up residential buildings west of Jabalia camp.”
It has not been possible for journalists to independently verify the casualty figures being issued during the conflict.
Welcome and opening summary …
Welcome to the Guardian’s ongoing live coverage of conflict in the Middle East. Here are the headlines …
Israeli strikes killed at least 12 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on New Year’s Day. Reports suggest at least 10 more people have been killed on Thursday, after tents in al-Mawasi were bombed overnight. It is an area that has been designated a “safe zone”. Palestinian media reports that the director-general of Gaza’s police force was killed in the strike.
On Wednesday, Israeli defense minister Israel Katz threatened that Israel would intensify its strikes on Gaza if Hamas continued to fire rockets into Israel
The Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has banned broadcasts by the Al Jazeera news network. The network has previously been banned from operating inside Israel by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government
Israel’s former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, has resigned from the Knesset, citing the government’s policy on the exemption of Orthodox men from military service. Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Gallant in November 2024
