Live: Israel kills at least 58 Palestinians in 24 hours

The Palestinian health ministry said on Tuesday that at least 45,059 people have been killed during Israel's war on Gaza, including 31 deaths in the past 24 hours. 

The ministry added that 107,041 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023. More than 10,000 are missing and presumed dead under the rubble.

Over 13,500 soldiers and officers have been wounded during Israel's war on Gaza, with about 1,500 of them sustaining injuries on two separate occasions, the Israeli Ministry of Defence's Department of Rehabilitation said.

The report highlights that 287 soldiers suffered head injuries, 87 of which are categorised as severe, and 10 soldiers are now confined to wheelchairs as a result of their wounds.

Additionally, the ministry stated that 37 percent of the injured personnel sustained limb injuries, with the majority being bone fractures.

Mental health challenges have also emerged as a significant concern, affecting approximately 5,200 soldiers. Of these, 3,350 are dealing with anxiety, depression, and adjustment difficulties, while 1,300 have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The figures underscore the heavy toll the war has taken on the physical and mental well-being of military personnel.

Israeli MP Avichai Boaron, from the Likud party, has submitted a draft proposal to allow freedom of movement for Israelis within the Gaza Strip, overturning the long-standing ban imposed under the 2005 "disengagement" law, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Under the "disengagement" plan, Israel withdrew its armed forces and 9,000 Israeli settlers living in 25 illegal settlements in Gaza. 

"Freedom of existence and full movement [for Jews] must be allowed in the Gaza Strip, as is the case in all areas of the land of Israel," Boaron said.

The proposal, according to its text, aims to emulate the measures taken in the northern occupied West Bank, where restrictions on the entry of Israelis were lifted and the Homesh settlement was rebuilt.

"Lifting the restrictions on Gaza may open the door to the establishment of new settlement blocs within the strip," Boaron added.

Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 14 Palestinians on Tuesday, at least 10 of them in one house in Gaza City, medics said as tanks pushed deeper towards the western area of Rafah in the south.

Medics said the Israeli air strike on the house in the Daraj suburb of Gaza City destroyed the building and damaged nearby houses. Four other people were killed in two separate air strikes in the city and the town of Beit Lahiya north of the enclave said medics, medics added.

In Rafah, near the border with Egypt, Israeli tanks pushed deeper towards the western area of Mawasi, known as a humanitarian-designated area, residents said.

The Ministry of Education said that 12,799 students were killed and 20,942 were injured in Gaza and occupied West Bank since the beginning of Israel's war on Gaza, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

The ministry said in a statement that the number of students who were killed in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the aggression reached more than 12,681, and those who were injured reached 20,311, while in the West Bank, 118 students were killed and 631 others were injured, in addition to the arrest of 538.

The death toll of teachers and school administrators reached 598 while 3,801 were injured in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. More than 158 were detained in the West Bank.

The ministry pointed out that 425 government schools, universities and 65 schools affiliated with the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees, Unrwa, were bombed and vandalised in the Gaza Strip.

It also confirmed that 788,000 students in the Gaza Strip are still deprived of attending their schools and universities since the beginning of the aggression, while most students suffer from psychological trauma and face difficult health conditions.

Armed Israeli settlers vandalised several Palestinian vehicles at the entrance of the village of al-Mazraa al-Gharbiya, northwest of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, according to the Quds News Network and the Palestinian Information Center.

Israeli settler militias have attacked and damaged vehicles at the entrance of the Mazra'a al-Qibliya village, located northwest of Ramallah. pic.twitter.com/2fe6VxEa1x

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) December 17, 2024

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Monday Israel will have security control over Gaza with full freedom of action after defeating Hamas in the enclave.

Good morning Middle East Eye,

Here are the latest updates from the Israeli war on Gaza, now in its 437th day:

• Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa have stressed the need for an immediate ceasefire in their conversation, according to Egypt’s presidency.

• Italy’s president Sergio Mattarella said the “real horizon for the future lies in the two-state solution” and called for a “solid, final guarantee of [Palestine’s] independence”.

• Relatives of Turkish-American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi said they asked US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday to pressure Israel to quickly wrap up its probe into her killing. Eygi was shot by Israeli soldiers while taking part in a demonstration against Israeli settlements in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

• Israel killed at least 10 Palestinians in an attack on northern Gaza, hours after launching a missile attack on the Shati refugee camp. Al Jazeera says the attack on Shati reduced victim’s bodies to “piles of flesh”.

• The World Health Organization on Monday said that a humanitarian team finally reached the Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of northern Gaza's only functioning hospitals, at the weekend to deliver fuel, food and medicines and found "appalling" conditions.

• The outgoing US President Joe Biden pledged to continue working to free the remaining captives held in Gaza until he leaves office, and reiterated that he is a "Zionist".

• A group of US senators have urged the outgoing Biden administration to "protect Palestinians present” in the US and “promptly designate” the occupied Palestinian territory’s temporary protected status (TPS) to prevent deportations there.

Good evening Middle East Eye readers,

Our live coverage from Gaza will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are some of the day's key developments:

• Gaza is facing an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe with over 45,000 people killed and an additional 111,000 people injured, the UN said in its monthly report on Palestine

• The head of the World Food Programme (WFP), Cindy McCain, has warned that two million people in Gaza are suffering from “acute hunger” as humanitarian aid struggles to reach those in need

• Hamas has accused the United States of being directly complicit in what it describes as Israeli “massacres” targeting Palestinians in Gaza

• The Israeli military announced that its 98th Division has been withdrawn from southern Lebanon and is being redirected to the Gaza Strip. In a statement on X, the army said the division had “completed” its mission in Lebanon after three months of clashes with Hezbollah and would now prepare for operations in Gaza

• The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has condemned Israel for its role in the deaths of four Palestinian journalists in Gaza over the past week, urging the international community to hold it accountable for attacks on media professionals

• The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza has accused Israeli forces of targeting hospital staff in the intensive care unit and firing at the facility’s power generators. The strikes have exacerbated an already dire humanitarian crisis in the besieged region

• Ireland's Prime Minister Simon Harris said he "utterly rejects" the assertion that Ireland is anti-Israel, as he reacted to Israel's decision to shut down the embassy in the Republic of Ireland on Sunday

• Israeli airstrikes destroyed multiple Palestinian homes, including two in Gaza City, killing at least seven civilians

• In the occupied West Bank, Palestinian Authority forces have extended their raid on the Jenin refugee camp while suppressing protests in Jenin city. Demonstrators had called for an end to both the siege on the camp and the PA’s ongoing security operations.

• An Israeli delegation has reportedly travelled to Qatar to hold discussions with mediators over a potential ceasefire

• Israel’s plans to expand settlements in the occupied Golan Heights have been met with condemnation from multiple nations, including Qatar, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, who criticised the move as a blatant violation of international law

An Israeli air strike on a residential house in Gaza City’s Daraj neighbourhood has killed at least eight Palestinians and injured several others, according to medics early on Tuesday.

Medical teams told Reuters that casualties were taken to Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza City.

The head of the World Food Programme (WFP), Cindy McCain, has warned that two million people in Gaza are suffering from “acute hunger” as humanitarian aid struggles to reach those in need.

In a post on X, McCain highlighted the dire situation, noting that last month only one-third of trucks carrying WFP aid managed to enter the besieged enclave.

“North Gaza was hit hardest – just two trucks reached thousands of hungry people,” she stated, underscoring the immense challenges aid agencies face.

McCain called for “safe, unfettered access at scale” to prevent famine and save lives, as international concern grows over the worsening humanitarian crisis caused by Israel’s blockade and military operations.

Jacqueline Almasri was feeding her two young children in a schoolyard-turned-shelter in Beit Lahia earlier this month when Israeli quadcopter drones buzzed overhead.

Over the past 14 months, Almasri has lived in several shelters after her family home in Beit Hanoun was bombed in the early weeks of October 2023.

Her husband, Mohammed, and her father-in-law were trying to retrieve food and belongings from the remnants of their home when it was bombed again. Mohammed was killed and his father was severely injured. 

“My son Amir was just 25 days old when his father was killed. His sister, Mira, was only one-and-a-half years old,” Almasri told Middle East Eye. “It’s unbearable to look after the two children without their father.”

But that's exactly what she was doing in Beit Lahia on 4 December when the quadcopters arrived, dropping sound bombs, which emitted loud noises and lights that spread panic among the displaced families.

Read more: 'Like doomsday': Palestinians recount surviving Israel's brutal Beit Lahia offensive

The US military has announced that it carried out an air strike in Sanaa, Yemen, targeting what it said was as a "command and control facility" operated by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement.

In a statement shared on X, US Central Command (Centcom) said the facility was instrumental in coordinating Houthi operations, including alleged attacks on US Navy vessels and commercial ships in the Southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

The air strike comes amid escalating tensions in the region, with critics arguing that US interventions further destabilise Yemen and exacerbate the humanitarian crisis. Many view such actions as enabling broader regional power struggles while ignoring the impact on Yemen's civilian population, already suffering under years of conflict.

Hamas has strongly condemned the ongoing Palestinian Authority (PA) raid on the Jenin refugee camp, labelling it a “national crime.”

In a statement, the group called for Palestinian unity and urged all factions to “break the siege and protect the fighters” in the camp, which has become a stronghold for resistance groups, including the Jenin Brigades. Hamas accused the PA of ignoring the widespread Palestinian call for an end to the incursion and to protect those resisting Israeli actions in the West Bank.

The group further criticised the raid as out of touch with the voices of Palestinians who demand protection for the “resistance”, which stands against Israeli military operations and the actions of Jewish settlers. Hamas urged Palestinian factions to focus their efforts on directing their “weapons and bullets” at the Israeli occupation instead.

Palestinian Authority (PA) forces used teargas to disperse protesters in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, where demonstrators had gathered to protest the ongoing siege of the nearby Jenin refugee camp.

The protests came just days after PA forces launched a raid on the camp, clashing with members of the Jenin Brigades. During the raid, PA forces killed a commander, Yazid Ja’ayseh, and left several others injured.

Jenin and its refugee camp are known as strongholds of armed factions, including the Jenin Brigades, who are viewed by many as more resistant to Israel’s occupation than the PA, which has faced criticism for its coordination with Israeli security forces.

Israeli forces have ramped up their operations in the camp, particularly since October of last year, further exacerbating tensions and fueling protests.