Live: Israel kills at least 58 Palestinians in 24 hours

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel would continue acting against the Houthis in Yemen, whom he accused of threatening world shipping and the international order, and called on Israelis to be steadfast.

"Just as we acted forcefully against the terrorist arms of Iran's axis of evil, so we will act against the Houthis," he said in a video statement a day after a missile fired from Yemen fell in the Tel Aviv area, causing a number of minor injuries.

Reporting from Reuters

For more than a week, the Palestinian Authority’s security forces have continued their security campaign in the Jenin refugee camp, in the northern West Bank.

The operation, launched on 14 December, aims to assert control over armed groups in the camp, particularly members of the Jenin Battalion.

Clashes have been ongoing between the armed youth of the battalion and members of the security forces, who have imposed a siege and closed the camp’s entrances.

Living conditions have deteriorated for camp residents, who have been left without water, electricity or the ability to move freely.

The camp’s residents, who have long served as a popular base of support for the battalion, maintain that the PA's campaign serves Israeli desires to pacify the West Bank and shut down hubs of resistance to the occupation.

It coincides with an ongoing Israeli land grab in the West Bank, with settlement expansion continuing in areas nominally with shared authority between Israel and the PA.

Read more: Palestinian Authority struggles to stay relevant as it cracks down on Jenin fighters

Israeli forces have targeted the vicinity of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, killing three civilians and wounding several others, according to Wafa news agency.

The hospital in Beit Lahia has come under relentless Israeli bombardment since Saturday evening.

Staff at the facility have issued urgent appeals for the protection of patients and healthcare workers, after Israel ordered the hospital - one of the only partially functional medical facilities in Gaza - to be evacuated.

Medical sources told Wafa that Israeli forces targeted the hospital with bombs, artillery shells and sniper fire.

They said that the women's, maternity and neonatal wards came under attack. The bombardment caused extensive damage and severed communication with the medical teams inside.

Two Palestinian civilians were killed and several others wounded in an Israeli air strike on al-Bureij refugee camp on Sunday.

Wafa news agency reported that the explosion in central Gaza caused multiple casualties, with emergency teams arriving on scene to transport the injured to nearby hospitals.

Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 45,259 and wounded 107,627 others, the Palestinian health ministry said on Sunday.

Syria will not "negatively" interfere in Lebanon's affairs, Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) told a visiting delegation of Druze leaders on Sunday.

HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani) said Syria would respect its southern neighbour's sovereignty, as well as "the unity of its territories, the independence of its decisions and its security stability".

Sharaa, whose group overthrew former President Bashar al-Assad earlier this month, was speaking to visiting Lebanese Druze chiefs Walid and Taymour Jumblatt as he continued attempts to normalise Syria's relations with its neighbours after more than 13 years of civil war.

"It will keep an equal distance from everyone" in Lebanon, he added, noting that Syria was "a source of fear and anxiety" in the country.

Syria and Lebanon's affairs have been heavily intertwined for decades, with Syrian forces occupying much of northern Lebanon between 1976 and 2005.

Read more: HTS says Syria will not interfere 'negatively' in Lebanon

Israel has ordered the closure and evacuation of one of the last hospitals partly functioning in besieged northern Gaza.

The director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, Husam Abu Safiya, told Reuters that it was "next to impossible" to get patients and wounded people out to safety.

"We currently have nearly 400 civilians inside the hospital, including babies in the neonatal unit, whose lives depend on oxygen and incubators. We cannot evacuate these patients safely without assistance, equipment, and time," said Abu Safiya.

"We are sending this message under heavy bombardment and direct targeting of the fuel tanks, which if hit will cause a large explosion and mass casualties of the civilians inside."

Abu Safiya said the Israeli military had ordered patients and staff to be evacuated to another hospital where conditions are even worse. The Israeli army did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Elsewhere, Israeli air strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 24 Palestinians. Eight of them, including some children, were killed at a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City.

At least 12 Palestinians were killed in air strikes in Rafah and Khan Younis south of the enclave, and Nusseirat and Bureij in the central Gaza Strip.

"All of the hospital's departments are now being bombed by the occupation using all kinds of weapons, using snipers, tanks and quadcopters."

Israeli forces have been launching a series of attacks on the barely functioning Kamal Adwan Hospital in north Gaza, after ordering people… pic.twitter.com/3sOGXtDwz3

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) December 22, 2024

Israel's war on Gaza has killed at least 45,259 Palestinians since 7 October last year, the Palestinian health ministry said on Sunday.

At least 107,627 others have been wounded in the enclave during that time, the ministry added.

Israeli forces have detained at least six Palestinians, including a child, during overnight raids across the occupied West Bank.

According to the Palestinian Prisoners' Society and the Palestinian Authority Commission for Prisoners' Affairs, the arrests took place in Nablus, Tubas, Tulkarm and Ramallah.

Israeli strikes killed at least 17 Palestinians overnight in Gaza, eight of whom were at a school sheltering displaced families. 

Palestinian medics said eight people, including children, were killed in the Musa Bin Nusayr School that sheltered displaced families in Gaza City.

Elsewhere in Gaza City, four Palestinians were killed when an Israeli air strike hit a car.

At least five other Palestinians were killed in southern Gaza in two separate air strikes in Rafah and Khan Younis.

In the northern town of Beit Lahiya, Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, said the Israeli army ordered staff to evacuate the facility and move patients to another hospital.

Abu Safiya said it was "next to impossible" because staff did not have ambulances to move patients.

Israeli forces have been widely accused of ethnically cleansing Palestinians from Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun, Jabalia and other parts of northern Gaza over the past three months. 

Our liveblog will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are the day's key developments:

-The Israeli military is using "booby-trapped robots" around Kamal Adwan Hospital in the besieged northern Gaza as it demands a complete evacuation of the facility, its director has said. Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya has been pleading for international help as the hospital comes under direct shelling from Israeli forces.

-At least 10 Palestinians, including two children, were killed in Israeli airstrikes on two houses in the Nuseirat refugee camp and Deir Al-Balah city in the central Gaza Strip, local medics confirmed to the Reuters news agency on Saturday.

-Aljazeera reported that two Palestinians were killed as a result of the Israeli shelling of a residential building in the center of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza strip, in the early hours of Sunday, local time. 

-US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Saturday its forces conducted "precision airstrikes" against what it describes as a "missile storage facility and a command-and-control facility" belonging to the Houthis in Yemen. It comes hours after a missile launch by the Houthis that landed in the Israeli capital Tel Aviv, injuring some 30 people. 

-The Times of Israel said on Saturday that Hamas has still not provided Israel with a list of the captives in Gaza that would be exchanged during a ceasefire deal. The paper cited the Israeli Channel 12 news. "Nevertheless, Israeli officials believe that progress is being made in the ongoing negotiations," the paper wrote. 

-The Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, released a video montage Saturday showing all three of its now deceased senior leaders together, in the first known footage of its kind, given the men resided in three different countries.  The nearly 4-minute clip shows Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza who was killed by Israel in a firefight; Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas chief negotiator who resided in Qatar but was assassinated while visiting Iran; and Saleh Al-Arouri, the Beirut-based deputy to Haniyeh who was assassinated in his Lebanon office.

-A US judge has ruled in favour of WhatsApp in a lawsuit accusing Israel's NSO Group of exploiting a bug in the messaging app to install spy software allowing unauthorised surveillance. US District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in Oakland, California, found NSO liable for hacking and breach of contract.

-Pope Francis has condemned an Israeli air strike in Gaza which killed seven children from the same family in the Jabalia refugee camp. In his annual Christmas message, Pope Francis said: "Yesterday, children were bombed. This is barbarity, it is not a war. I wanted to say this because it touches the heart."

Aljazeera is reporting that two Palestinians have been killed as a result of the Israeli shelling of a residential building in the center of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza strip, in the early hours of Sunday, local time. 

The Times of Israel said on Saturday that Hamas has still not provided Israel with a list of the captives in Gaza that would be exchanged during a ceasefire deal. The paper cited the Israeli Channel 12 news.

"Nevertheless, Israeli officials believe that progress is being made in the ongoing negotiations," the paper wrote. 

At least 10 Palestinians, including two children, were killed in Israeli airstrikes on two houses in the Nuseirat refugee camp and Deir Al-Balah city in the central Gaza Strip, local medics confirmed to the Reuters news agency on Saturday.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Saturday its forces conducted "precision airstrikes" against what it describes as a "missile storage facility and a command-and-control facility" belonging to the Houthis in Yemen.

"CENTCOM forces conducted the deliberate strikes to disrupt and degrade Houthi operations, such as attacks against US Navy warships and merchant vessels in the Southern Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb, and Gulf of Aden," the statement said.

"During the operation, CENTCOM forces also shot down multiple Houthi one way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles (OWA UAV) and an anti-ship cruise missile (ASCM) over the Red Sea. The operation involved US Air Force and US Navy assets, including F/A-18s," it added. 

The US attack comes hours after a missile launch by the Houthis that landed in the Israeli capital Tel Aviv, injuring some 30 people.