Evening recap

Good evening readers of Middle East Eye,

We are on the 87th day of the war on Gaza. 

The new year began in the besieged Palestinian enclave with Israeli bombing as the death toll near the 22,000 mark. Overall, around four percent of Gaza's population have been killed, wounded or gone missing in less than three months of bombardment. 

Here are the major developments from the last few hours: 

• In a series of targeted strikes during its ongoing bombardment of Gaza, the Israeli army laid waste to dozens of mosques.
• Israel is withdrawing some forces from Gaza to shift to more targeted operations against Hamas, an Israeli official has told Reuters. 
• Israel's far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said during a party meeting on Monday that Israel "will permanently control the Gaza Strip to ensure security".
• The Palestinian Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs announced on Monday evening that a Palestinian prisoner died in Israeli detention.
• The number of Hezbollah fighters killed in the southern part of Lebanon on Monday has reached four, Hezbollah announced on its Telegram account.