Israel-Palestine live: US and Israel air differences over Gaza strategy

Israel would pay a very heavy price if it targets Hamas members in Turkey, the country's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said. 

Speaking to reporters on a flight returning from Qatar, Erdogan warned Israel against hunting down members of the Palestinian group on Turkish soil, according to Reuters. 

He also rejected plans to establish a buffer zone in Gaza, adding that such a plan was "disrespectful" to Palestinians.

Autopsies performed on bodies of Palestinian prisoners who died in Israeli detention show they were bruised before their deaths, Haaretz said on Wednesday. 

The report appears to confirm eyewitness testimonies that six Palestinian detainees have been beaten to death since 7 October. Four of them died in Israeli jails and two in military detention facilities.
 
The bodies of two of them were found with bruises, Haaretz said. In the other cases, evidence suggests they died from violence that preceded their death, or of medical neglect. 

In the case of Abdul-Rahman Maree, 33, who died in Megiddo Prison on 13 November, the autopsy showed signs of trauma on his chest, and that his ribs and sternum were broken. 

Signs of external injuries were also seen on his head and neck, back, left arm and thigh. According to the autopsy, seen by Haaretz, Maree was a healthy person with no underlying illnesses, so his death can be attributed to the violence he suffered. An official cause of death has not been declared. 

According to an eyewitness, prison guards were provoking Maree by cursing his recently deceased father. When he yelled back, around 10 to 15 prison guards attacked him, beating him severely for five minutes and focusing their blows on his head. 

The Gaza Strip is witnessing another wave of displacement amid intensifying Israeli air strikes in the south and north, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) has said. 

The UN said earlier this week that up to 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza, around 80 percent of the population, have already been forcibly displaced.

"Another wave of displacement is underway in Gaza - the situation is getting worse each minute," Unrwa said on Wednesday. 

"There is no 'safe' zone, the entire Gaza Strip has become one of the most dangerous places in the world."

"There is nowhere to go as shelters, including Unrwa's, are overflowing."

Fuel and medical supplies have reached "critically low levels" at Al-Aqsa hospital in the central area of the Gaza Strip, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Wednesday.

Doctors may not be able to treat hundreds of patients needing emergency care due to "unrelenting Israeli bombardment".

“There are 700 patients admitted in the hospital now, with new patients arriving all the time. We are running out of essential supplies to treat them,” said Marie-Aure Perreaut Revial, MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza.

“It is vital that the supply of humanitarian supplies is facilitated. The hospital urgently needs surgical sets, external fixators to hold broken bones together, and essential drugs, including drugs for chronic illnesses," Revial added.

As the Israeli war in Gaza enters its 61st day, here's a detailed update of the Palestinian death toll since 7 October. 

The figures are sourced from the Palestinian health ministry and are accurate as of 06:30 GMT. 

Gaza 

• Killed: 16,248

  • Including: 7,112 children, 4,885 women, 286 medical professionals, 32 paramedics, 81 journalists 

• Missing: 7,600 

• Wounded: 43,616 

West Bank 

• Killed: 254 

Israeli forces killed two Palestinians near the occupied West Bank city of Tubas on Wednesday, according to the Palestinian health ministry. 

They were identified as Obaidah Emad Bani Odah, 16, and Mazen Mohammad Zahran, 23. 

The pair were killed during an Israeli military raid in the Al Fara refugee camp and Tammun town south of Tubas. 

Many Palestinians have been killed and wounded in renewed air strikes in Jabalia district north of Gaza City, local media reported on Wednesday. 

The area attacked is home to dozens of families but the extent of damage was not immediately clear. 

Northern Gaza Strip has come under repeated Israeli shelling for two months, making many areas inaccessible to ambulances and hospitals.

Good evening Middle East Eye readers, 

Today marked the 60th day of Israel's relentless campaign of bombing, invasion and siege of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli forces launched a devastating assault on the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, in one of the most violent days since the military launched a ground offensive on the besieged enclave in October. 

At least 43 dead Palestinian bodies were brought to Khan Younis's main medical facility, and transported to the hospital in ambulances, cars, flatbed trucks and donkey carts. 

Here are some of the  updates from the past few hours: 

• Over 15,900 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israel since the start of the war on 7 October, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced.
• Israel is considering a plan to flood a network of tunnels in the Gaza Strip with seawater, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
• A Lebanese soldier was killed and three others were wounded from Israeli shelling near a village in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel. The Israeli military later expressed its "regret". 
• Israeli forces stormed the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank after the discovery of special forces by residents. 
• The US State Department announced that it will impose travel bans on Israeli settlers involved in attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank.

We're going to be pausing our live coverage. However, you can stay up to date on the latest developments from Gaza and Israel by following Middle East Eye's live blog and pages on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

Israeli authorities have permitted extreme right-wing Jewish groups to hold a march at the Al Aqsa Mosque complex in Jerusalem on Thursday evening, calling for an end to the administration of the site by the Waqf, the Islamic trust responsible for its management, Haaretz reported.

The activists are calling to "restore full Jewish control over the Temple Mount and Jerusalem," against Waqf control.

Scheduled to include 200 participants, the march is set to pass through the Damascus Gate and the Muslim Quarter.

In a recent post on X, the Israeli military said that a strike on Lebanese territory, which killed one soldier, was conducted as "self-defence to eliminate an imminent threat that had been identified from Lebanon."

"The threat was identified within a known launch area and observation point of ​​the Hezbollah terrorist organisation, near al-Awadi," the post said.

It added that the military was notified that Lebanese soldiers were harmed during the strike and they "express regret over the incident". 

"The Lebanese Armed Forces were not the target of the strike," the post said. "The incident is under review."

In a statement on Tuesday, The World Food Programme (WFP) said the "catastrophic hunger crisis" is intensifying and called for a ceasefire."

The resumption of hostilities in Gaza will only intensify the catastrophic hunger crisis that already threatens to overwhelm the civilian population," the statement read.

It added that the seven-day pause allowed WFP and its partners "some safety to scale up relief operations".

It said that during that time it doubled the number of distribution points outside shelters and delivered food in places that had "been impossible to reach, including in some northern areas".

"Tragically, this desperately needed progress is now being lost. The renewed fighting makes the distribution of aid almost impossible and endangers the lives of humanitarian workers. Above all, it is a disaster for the civilian population of Gaza, more than 2m people, whose only lifeline is food assistance," the statement said.

"Humanitarians must have safe, unimpeded, and sustained access, so we are able to distribute life-saving assistance throughout the territory. All parties must uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law."

It added that "only a lasting peace can end the suffering and avert the looming humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. WFP calls for a humanitarian ceasefire and urges all leaders to work with the utmost urgency to find political solutions that can end the suffering of families on all sides of this harrowing conflict."

Relatives of a CNN reporter were killed in Gaza and his childhood home was demolished in two different Israeli air strikes.

According to CNN, its producer Ibrahim Dahman has been covering the war in Gaza since 7 October.After almost a month, he fled to Egypt with his family.

On Sunday, he received news that an Israeli air strike in northern Gaza had killed at least nine of his relatives at his aunt's house.

On the same day, his childhood home in Gaza City was also destroyed due to a strike on a nearby building.

“I will never be able to forget every stone and corner of the house in which I was born and raised and in which my children were born,” he told CNN.

The US State Department officially announced on Tuesday that it will impose travel bans on Israeli settlers involved in attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank.

In a statement, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote, "Today, the State Department is implementing a new visa restriction policy targeting individuals believed to have been involved in undermining peace, security, or stability in the West Bank, including through committing acts of violence or taking other actions that unduly restrict civilians’ access to essential services and basic necessities. Immediate family members of such persons also may be subject to these restrictions."

He added that violent attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians are "unacceptable."

"Both Israel and the Palestinian Authority have the responsibility to uphold stability in the West Bank. Instability in the West Bank both harms the Israeli and Palestinian people and threatens Israel’s national security interests," he said.

During a meeting with the families of hostages held in Gaza and other members of the war cabinet on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that "currently, it's not possible to bring them all back", referring to the hostages.

According to Haaretz, Netanyahu added: "Can anyone imagine that if there was such a possibility, someone would have refused?"

The Times of Israel reported that several freed hostages attended the meeting with Netanyahu and that the meeting was "markedly tense and hostile and that some families have left early".

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has issued a warning, following the breakdown of a temporary pause on 1 December, that extensive bombing in Gaza has recommenced, endangering the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the IRC wrote that Israeli directives to vacate southern regions of Gaza have instilled fear and uncertainty among Palestinian civilians, many of whom are already displaced.

"Civilians’ decisions to move must be voluntary. For those who do decide to move their right to return must be guaranteed. While those who are unable, or unwilling, to leave once again must remain protected."

"The resumption of hostilities has not only caused injury and loss of life, but has further constrained humanitarian assistance. It is becoming increasingly difficult for humanitarian organisations, including our NGO partners, to stay safe, let alone provide the level of support people require," the statement said.