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

An Israeli journalist has criticised the Israeli army after he interviewed an officer who falsely claimed Hamas fighters had hung out dead Israeli babies and children on washing lines.

On Tuesday, Ishay Coen posted a video of himself interviewing a soldier who said "babies and children were hung on a clothes line in a row".

But journalists pointed out that only one child had been killed in the area where the event was purported to have taken place and that the claim was therefore inaccurate. Others questioned why no imagery of the claim had been provided.

Amid the criticisms, Coen deleted the interview but pro-Israel accounts on X continue to share the clip.

Coen responded to the critics, explaining that he deleted his original post based on the complaints he had received and his own investigations that led him to conclude the claim was likely false.

Read more: Israeli journalist slams army for feeding false line about Hamas atrocity

Hackers have reportedly attacked several Israeli government and media websites in recent weeks, amid Israel's bombing campaign and ground invasion of the besieged Gaza Strip.

A group calling itself Cyber Toufan claimed to have hacked Israel's defence ministry last week and subsequently dumped huge troves of data on its Telegram account, which it claimed were the names of Israeli army and reserve soldiers.

In a video released on its Telegram account, a hacker displayed data he claimed was of Israeli soldiers, including their names, ranks, service numbers and places of residence.

Middle East Eye could not independently verify the names in the leak and Israel's defence ministry did not respond to questions.

Read more: Hackers claim to have targeted Israeli government websites

The UN has called on the international community to move towards a two-state solution in the Israel-Palestine conflict, stating that Jerusalem should serve as the capital of both states.

"It is long past time to move in a determined, irreversible way towards a two-state solution, on the basis of United Nations resolutions and international law," said Tatiana Valovaya, director-general of the UN office in Geneva, delivering a speech written by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

She said that would mean "Israel and Palestine living side-by-side in peace and security with Jerusalem as the capital of both states."

Ibrahim Khraishi, Palestine's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said the current war served as a wake-up call for the international community to support the two-state solution.

"The two-state solution is difficult after the [Israeli] settlement and shrinking [of territory], but still possible if there is a will," Khraishi said.

"Now is the moment. And it's good for Israel by the way. If they don't accept the idea, it will be too late for them, not for us."

The bodies of five premature Palestinian babies have reportedly been discovered in al-Nasr Hospital as reporters and aid workers sort through the remains of the bombed-out health facility during the truce in the Gaza Strip.

Journalists from Emirati TV channel Al-Mashhad discovered the decomposing remains of the children, who were not among those evacuated from the children's hospital after Israeli forces ordered patients and staff to leave on 10 November.

Footage released by the channel - which Middle East Eye has not been able to independently verify - appeared to show the babies still lying in their hospital beds.

Read more: Five dead premature babies discovered in Gaza hospital

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that he would work with Israelis during an upcoming trip to Israel on extending the temporary truce.

Speaking in Brussels following a Nato meeting, Blinken said the continuation of the truce would mean more captives can be freed and more humanitarian assistance could reach Gaza.

"Clearly, that's something we want. I believe it's also something that Israel wants," he said.

Editor's note: This post includes graphic footage

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said its medics transported the body of a nine-year-old boy from the vicinity of al-Basateen neighbourhood in Jenin, after he was shot dead by Israeli forces.

A graphic video shared on social media shows the moment the child was shot in broad daylight, before his bloodied body was dragged away from the middle of the road by another young boy.

The Palestinian health ministry said that two children were killed by Israeli forces in Jenin on Wednesday.

Israeli forces have shot dead two Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, according to the health ministry.

A nine-year-old girl recently released after being held prisoner by Hamas in Gaza will now only talk in whispers, after being ordered to stay silent by her captors. 

"She was a normal, happy, noisy kid, but now she whispers - she was moving her lips with no volume or even air coming out," her father, Thomas Hand, told British newspaper The Sun on Wednesday. 

"She's got used to talking like that for the past 50 days and now I guess she can't stop."

Emily, who is an Irish-Israeli citizen, was at a friend's house in Kibbutz Be'eri when Hamas fighters took her captive on 7 October. Her father had presumed she was killed. 

Hand told The Sun that Emily was not abused while held prisoner, but had lost weight. He added that the first thing she wanted to do after being freed was to watch a video of singer Beyoncé.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday branded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "the butcher of Gaza" and accused him of spawning antisemitism across the world.

"Netanyahu has already written his name in history as the butcher of Gaza," Erdogan said in nationally televised remarks.

"Netanyahu is endangering the security of all Jews in the world by supporting antisemitism with the murders he committed in Gaza," he added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied that he allowed Qatar to fund and strengthen Hamas in order to politically divide Palestinians, according to a report in Politico on Tuesday.

Critics have long accused the premier of boosting Hamas in an attempt to play it off against the Palestinian Authority.

"It’s a big lie that I wanted to build Hamas. Ridiculous," Netanyahu told Axel Springer, Politico's parent company. "You don’t go to war three times with Hamas or do major military operations if you want to build up Hamas."

In 2019, Netanyahu told Likud's annual conference: "Anyone who wants to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state needs to support strengthening Hamas." 

But he denied that allowing Qatari funds into the besieged enclave was linked to strengthening Hamas. 

"We wanted to avoid a civilian humanitarian collapse - disease, rampant hunger and other things that would have created an impossible humanitarian situation," he said.

"That’s why successive Israeli governments allowed this money to go in, not in order to strengthen Hamas. We didn’t want to strengthen Hamas at all. We wanted to weaken it and degrade its capabilities as far as we could."

Israeli forces launched a string of raids across several refugee camps in the occupied West Bank in the early hours of Wednesday morning. 

In Jericho, Israeli troops stormed homes in Ein el-Sultan and Aqbat Jabr refugee camps, accompanied by a military bulldozer in the latter. 

Meanwhile in Nablus, Israeli forces raided Askar camp, where violent confrontations broke out with residents. 

In Ramallah, Palestinian homes were stormed in the Jalazone camp, after which young men from the camp confronted Israeli forces. 

Elsewhere, Israeli forces stormed the occupied West Bank city of Jenin overnight too, destroying infrastructure and wounding and arresting several Palestinians.

Hamas is willing to extend the ongoing truce with Israel by an additional four days, according to a report by AFP.

"Hamas has informed the mediators that it is willing to extend the truce for four days and that the movement would be able to release Israeli prisoners that it, other resistance movements, and other parties hold during this period, according to the terms of the existing truce," a source close to Hamas told AFP on Wednesday.

Israeli gunboats shelled the coast of Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Wednesday morning despite the ongoing halt in fighting, according to an Al Jazeera correspondent. 

Meanwhile, Israel's Walla news website reported a further incident off the coast of Gaza's shores. 

"A second shooting incident on the shores of the Gaza Strip," said Walla defence correspondent Amir Bohbot on X.

"Navy fighters opened fire on a Palestinian boat that was trying to go out into the open sea from the shores of Deir al-Balah. The boat returned to the shore."

Israeli forces stormed the occupied West Bank city of Jenin overnight, destroying infrastructure and wounding and arresting several Palestinians, according to Wafa news agency. 

Bulldozers destroyed electricity and water networks, while Israeli drones targeted homes and vehicles in Jenin refugee camp.

Several homes were also raided in the city by Israeli troops, as authorities launched a mass arrest campaign. 

The director of Al-Razi Hospital told Wafa that at least four Palestinians were wounded by Israeli gunfire. 

In Ibn Sina Hospital, Israeli authorities prevented wounded and sick people from reaching the facility, its director said. 

Elsewhere in the West Bank, Israeli forces also reportedly stormed al-Askar refugee camp in Nablus.