Live: Israel kills at least 58 Palestinians in 24 hours

A Palestinian man has died of wounds he sustained after being shot by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank town of Qusra, south of Nablus, Al Jazeera is reporting.

Wafa news agency separately reported that Israeli soldiers assaulted a Palestinian man on Tuesday night at a military checkpoint in the Murabba’a area, southwest of Nablus.

According to the report, which cited local sources, Israeli soldiers stopped a bus at the checkpoint, and forced one of the passengers off before physically assaulting him.

Germany's foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said that Israel's occupation of the Golan Heights is a violation of international law during a speech in parliament on Wednesday.

Her comments come after Israel announced plans to expand its settlements in the occupied plateau.

A new report by the NGO 7amleh, the Arab Centre for the Advancement of Social Media, has revealed the extent of Meta's censorship of Palestinian voices on its platforms.

The report is based on 20 testimonies from Palestinian influencers, journalists and media outlets who report having their posts deleted, accounts suspended and audience reach restricted.

"These policies have caused significant economic and professional losses, in addition to psychological, social, and political harms due to the repeated violations of Palestinian users’ digital rights," the organisation said.

🚨7amleh released a new report titled "Erased and Suppressed: Palestinian Testimonies of Meta's Censorship". The report highlights direct testimonies from Palestinian influencers, journalists, and media outlets who have faced Meta's discriminatory practices. It exposes Meta's… pic.twitter.com/gev3SXBT7z

— 7amleh حملة (@7amleh) December 18, 2024

At least 15 Palestinians have been detained by Israeli forces across the West Bank in the last 24 hours, prisoner advocacy groups are reporting.

The Palestinian Authority's Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoner's Society said that the detentions were conducted during raids across Hebron, Jericho, Tulkarm, Ramallah, Qalqilya and Jerusalem.

The detainees included a woman from Gaza who was in the West Bank for treatment, as well as children and former detainees. The detainees were reportedly assaulted, their families threatened and their property and homes damaged.

According to local authorities, Israeli forces have detained over 12,100 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem since October 2023.

Lebanon's National News Agency is reporting that the Israeli army is destroying residential buildings in southern Lebanon.

It reported that explosions were heard in the city of Tyre, the village of Harfa, the town of al-Jebbayn and the village of Chihine. It added that buildings in the town of Naqoura were also targeted.

Three people, including two women, were killed in an Israeli attack on a residential house in Khan Younis, the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) has reported.

According to PIC, the two women were "dismembered" in the attack, and a child injured.

It named the victims as Hani Mohammed Abu Yousef, Maysoun Salman Abu Yousef and Marah Hani Mohammed Abu Yousef.

Israeli forces have killed at least six Palestinians in a raid on a house northern Gaza's Beit Hanoun, Al Jazeera Arabic is reporting.

The Israeli military has issued expulsion orders for residents of several neighbourhoods in central Gaza’s Bureij refugee camp.

Avichay Adraee, the military's Arabic media spokesperson, released a map showing the areas where residents have been ordered to leave, claiming that rockets were fired at Israel from these locations, necessitating an Israeli response.

“For your own safety, move immediately to the humanitarian zone,” he said.

However, local and international organisations have said there are no safe zones in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military has issued a forced evacuation order concerning several neighbourhoods in central Gaza’s Bureij refugee camp.

Avichay Adraee, an Israeli army Arabic-language spokesman, published a map of the zones that must be cleared, claiming that rockets were fired at Israel from this area and the Israeli forces had to respond.

“For your own safety, move immediately to the humanitarian zone,” he said.

Local and international organisations say there are no safe zones in the Gaza Strip.

The parliamentary hearing on France's annual arms exports was cancelled for the second time last week.

Initially scheduled for November, the hearing - intended to question the ministers of the armed forces, foreign trade and industry - was postponed to 11 December due to a busy parliamentary agenda. However, in the meantime, the French government's censure by MPs has indefinitely postponed the session.

The hearing was highly anticipated, as it would have been the first opportunity since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza on 7 October 2023 to clarify the sensitive issue of arms sales to Israel by the world’s second-largest arms supplier.

While the Israeli army's repeated violations of international law have been denounced by numerous international organisations, including in an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the types of French military equipment exported to Israel remain unknown.

“As things stand, we have no way of knowing more,” said Aurelien Saintoul, an MP from the left-wing party France Unbowed (La France insoumise, LFI) and a member of the National Assembly's defence committee, which is responsible for conducting the hearing.

Read more: Gaza war: French arms sales to Israel marked by lack of transparency and control

Israel did not allow the deployment of an international medical team urgently needed at Kamal Adwan Hospital as it continues its siege in northern Gaza, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

"Attacks on Kamal Adwan Hospital in north Gaza have caused further damage, leaving it without surgical or maternal care capacity," Hanan Balkhy, WHO regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, said in an X post.

"The fear endured by the hospital’s staff and patients in recent days is indescribable - and unacceptable." 

Attacks on Kamal Adwan Hospital in north #Gaza have caused further damage, leaving it without surgical or maternal care capacity. @WHO and partners were recently able to deliver 5,000 liters of fuel, medical supplies, and food, and transfer 3 patients with 6 companions to… pic.twitter.com/fVlW0FG9Cl

— HananBalkhyحنان بلخي (@HananBalkhy) December 18, 2024

Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 45,097 Palestinians and injured 107,244 since 7 October 2023, the Palestinian health ministry said on Wednesday.

Gaza medics reported that Israeli air strikes killed at least 16 Palestinians overnight, as the United States and Arab mediators worked on Wednesday to finalise a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

On Tuesday, sources close to the talks in Cairo said a ceasefire agreement, along with a deal to exchange hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, could be signed in the coming days.

Medics said an Israeli air strike killed at least 10 people in a house in the northern town of Beit Lahia, where army forces have been operating since October. Six others were killed in separate air strikes in Gaza City, the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza and Rafah near the Egyptian border. 

The Israeli military has acknowledged that a group of settlers crossed the northern border into Lebanon earlier this month, near the Lebanese village of Maroun al-Ras.

According to the military, the settlers set up an encampment near an Israeli border community but were eventually dispersed by soldiers, as the area is designated a closed military zone.

The US Department of Defense shipped over a thousand tons of ammunition to Israel on a vessel that stopped at a US naval base in Spain, potentially violating Spain’s embargo on military cargo bound for Israel, The Intercept reported.

Naval Station Rota, although partly operated by the US Navy, is located on Spanish territory and technically falls under Spanish law. According to the report, transporting ammunition intended for Israel through the base complicates the enforcement of the embargo, as noted by researchers from the Palestinian Youth Movement and Progressive International.

“Shipments through American military bases in Spain of military materials, which may be used in the commission of international crimes, are harder to detect,” said Enrique Santiago, a lawyer and Spanish legislator from the governing coalition, in an interview with The Intercept.