Live Blog Update| Israel's genocide in Gaza
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Evening recap

7 January 2024 23:26 GMT

Good evening, Middle East Eye readers.

Here are the main developments of the day.

At least 113 Palestinians were killed and 250 wounded by Israeli bombardment over the past 24 hours in Gaza, the Palestinian health ministry said on Sunday. 

That brought the death toll in the territory since 7 October to 22,835, it said, adding that 58,416 others had been wounded during that time.

In the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians during an operation, during which an Israeli police officer was killed by Palestinian fighters. 

Confrontations broke out after an Israeli incursion at the city's entrance early on Sunday. The Palestinian health ministry said an Israeli drone strike targeted people who had gathered at the scene. Eyewitnesses told Reuters the attack happened as Israeli forces were withdrawing from the area.

Two journalists have been killed in an Israeli air strike in southern Gaza. Hamza al-Dahdouh of Al Jazeera, the son of Al Jazeera Gaza bureau chief Wael al-Dahdouh, and Mustafa Thuraya, a video freelancer for AFP, died in Khan Younis while travelling in a car, the health ministry and medics confirmed.

"Al Jazeera condemns, in the strongest terms, the ongoing crimes committed by Israeli occupation forces against journalists and media professionals in Gaza," the media network said.

The Committee to Protect Journalists later called for an investigation into the killing of the journalists. 

Elsewhere, three Palestinians, including a four-year-old girl and a woman, were shot dead by Israeli soldiers on Sunday at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank.

Eyewitnesses said that Israeli security personnel opened fire on two vehicles as they passed through the Beit Iksa checkpoint, north of Jerusalem, wounding a man and a woman in the same vehicle.

A child who was in the other vehicle was also shot and died of her injuries, according to Israeli ambulance staff.

In other major news:

  • Jordan's King Abdullah warned US Secretary of State Antony Blinken of the "catastrophic repercussions" of Israel continuing its war on Gaza. The king also told Blinken during a meeting in Amman that Washington had a major role to play in putting pressure on Israel to agree to an immediate ceasefire in the besieged enclave.
     
  • Later, at a joint press conference in Doha with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, Blinken said that when he visited Israel this week, he would tell Israeli officials it was imperative they do more to prevent civilian casualties in Gaza and that Palestinian civilians must be allowed to return home and not be pressed to leave Gaza. "This is a moment of profound tension for the region. This is a conflict that could easily metastasize," Blinken told the press conference before heading to Abu Dhabi.
     
  • Israel's cabinet will approve a 2024 wartime budget on Thursday, according to far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. As part of the budget, Israeli ministers approved 9 billion shekels ($2.5bn) in financial support for military reservists.
     
  • Beirut airport on Sunday came under a cyberattack, Lebanon's state news agency said, with footage shared by local media showing anti-Hezbollah messages had replaced screen displays at its terminal. Media reports said the airport message urged the powerful Iran-backed group Hezbollah not to "drag the country into war".

We're pausing our coverage for now, but we will be back soon. To stay up to date on the latest news, follow us on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, Telegram and YouTube.