Live: At least 74 children killed in Gaza in first week of 2025

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has returned to his “evasive approach” in the Gaza ceasefire talks, hindering negotiations, an Egyptian source has told the Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news outlet. 

The source, who was described as “familiar with the negotiations”, said in the Wednesday report that the change in the Israeli positions surprised mediators and slowed recent progress made in the indirect talks with Palestinian movement Hamas. 

Netanyahu submitted a new list of demands, which included modifications regarding the captives Israel wants to be released, as well as additional conditions related to the timeline for the army’s withdrawal during that phase of the proposed agreement, the source said.

He added that talks were “proceeding very well” until the latest Israeli changes. 

“Mediators in Egypt and Qatar were about to reach a nearly final draft of the agreement to present to all relevant parties, especially after Hamas had presented an acceptable formula regarding the agreement's timeline,” the report said. 

Read more: War on Gaza: Netanyahu hindering deal again by changing demands, source says

At least 52 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes on several areas of Gaza since the morning, Al Jazeera reported, citing medical sources.

In the past hour, Israeli air strikes have targeted multiple locations.

Three Palestinians were killed and others injured near Lababidi Junction, west of Gaza City. An attack on the Interior Ministry building in southern Khan Younis killed six people and wounded several more. A drone strike hit a school sheltering displaced people in Nuseirat camp, injuring several people. Additionally, five Palestinians were killed and others wounded near al-Oyoun Junction in Gaza City.

The commander of Israel's 252nd Division has been accused by his own troops of "contempt for human life" leading to unnecessary deaths of soldiers and a push for ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza.

Soldiers speaking to Haaretz said Brigadier General Yehuda Vach's conduct had led directly to the deaths in August of eight soldiers in Zeitoun, a southern neighbourhood of Gaza City.

"He sent the soldiers in there without the necessary preparations on the ground and without ensuring that there were no bombs there," one said.

"A supply convoy either drove over a bomb or they were hit by an anti-tank missile."

A senior officer in Southern Command told Haaretz that the army launched an inquiry into the high number of soldiers killed in the Zeitoun assault.

Read more: Israeli general's 'contempt for human life' led to widespread deaths in Gaza

A 14-year-old boy was injured on Thursday by Israeli forces in the town of Jayyous, east of Qalqilya in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said its medical teams administered first aid to the child, who had sustained a gunshot wound to the leg. He was later transferred to a nearby hospital for further treatment.

Witnesses and reporters said the child was injured near the Israeli segregation wall in Jayyous, an area frequently witnessing confrontations.

Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza has killled at least 45,581 Palestinians and wounded 108,438 since 7 October, 2023, according to the Health Ministry.

The latest figures were reported after 28 additional deaths were confirmed in the past 24 hours.

The true death toll is likely much higher, with an estimated 10,000 bodies trapped beneath the extensive rubble caused by Israel’s continuous bombing over the past 15 months.

Israeli forces are heavily shelling the vicinity of the war-shattered Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza, where some medical workers and displaced Palestinians are taking shelter, a doctor inside the non-functioning health facility told Middle East Eye. 

"There is currently heavy artillery shelling and gunfire from quadcopter drones in the vicinity of the hospital," Dr Rawia Tambour told MEE in a recorded audio message, as sounds of blasts could be heard in the background. 

"Israeli military vehicles are advancing towards the hospital," she added.

The Indonesian hospital, one the biggest health facilities in northern Gaza, has been out of service for weeks due to ongoing direct Israeli attacks and siege.

Last week, Israeli forces raided and destroyed the Kamal Adwan hospital, also in northern Gaza, which was the last remaining functional hospital in the area.  

Israeli forces detained many of the doctors and wounded people there, but some were forced to move to the Indonesian hospital, which is now under attack. 

Abu Hamza, the military spokesperson for the Al-Quds Brigades, the paramilitary wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said their medical teams successfully intervened after an Israeli prisoner attempted suicide three days ago, Al Jazeera reported.

“We succeeded in saving the prisoner’s life after he attempted suicide due to his psychological condition. The prisoner’s psychological condition deteriorated after the Netanyahu government set new conditions that led to the failure of the release,” said Hamza.

The prisoner was originally scheduled to be freed in the first phase of a prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel.

“Following the prisoner’s suicide attempt, the al-Quds Brigades decided to tighten security and safety measures for the prisoners,” said Abu Hamza.

Paula Gil, president of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Spain, also known as Doctors Without Borders, blamed Israel's allies for allowing Gaza to be destroyed in a statement published on X.

“Gaza today is a death trap. Families are surviving in makeshift shelters made of wood, plastic, and mattresses. Now the cold and storms have arrived. How will they face the winter in these conditions?” she said.

Sharing her observations from her latest visit to Gaza, Gil said some of her colleagues had been forced to flee 10 times over the past 14 months.

“This does not happen in a vacuum. The hypocrisy and complicity of Israel’s allies is allowing the social fabric of Gaza to be destroyed with impunity. There are no more squares, no more schools, no more places for children to play or families to gather," she added.

“Families are surviving in makeshift shelters made of wood, plastic, and mattresses. Now the cold and the storms have arrived. How will they face the winter in these conditions?”

Paula Gil, MSF Spain President, who visited Gaza recently, shares her concerns about the current… pic.twitter.com/4vzdzkBOHx

— MSF International (@MSF) January 2, 2025

At least four people have been killed and several others wounded after Israeli air strikes hit the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, Al Jazeera reported, citing medical sources.

The recent deaths bring Thursday's toll to at least 18 across the Gaza Strip.

Thousands of Israeli soldiers have ceased serving in combat roles due to mental distress since 7 October 2023, the Israeli army reported on Thursday.

The army also revealed a rise in suicides among soldiers, from 17 in 2023 to 21 in 2024 – the highest annual total since 2011. Of the 21 soldiers who took their own lives in 2024, 12 were reservists, seven were on compulsory duty, and two were career soldiers.

According to the data, suicide is the second-leading cause of death in the Israeli army, following operational duty and surpassing illnesses and accidents.

Al Jazeera denounced the Palestinian Authority’s decision to close its office in the occupied West Bank.

“Al Jazeera Media Network … considers this decision nothing but an attempt to dissuade the channel from covering the rapidly escalating events taking place in the occupied territories,” the Qatar-based network said in a statement.

“And – unfortunately – such a decision comes in line with the previous action taken by the Israeli government, which closed Al Jazeera’s office in Ramallah.”

This decision comes following the “ongoing campaign of incitement and intimidation by parties associated with the Palestinian Authority against Al Jazeera’s journalists and correspondents”, it added.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has said on Thursday that a draft law to conscript ultra-Orthodox Jews into the army, who had previously been exempt, is not a "moral issue," dismissing the rhetoric as a "cynical political use".

In a post on X, Katz said, "The new conscription law, upon its completion, will mark a historic turning point and result in the recruitment of tens of thousands of additional ultra-Orthodox members for significant service in the IDF [Israeli army] for the first time."

"This contrasts with the recently implemented policy, which failed and actually led to a decrease in the number of ultra-Orthodox members serving in the IDF," he added.

In July, the Israeli high court ruled ruled that ultra-Orthodox men, previously exempt from military service, must be drafted. The decision sparked widespread protests among ultra-Orthodox Jews, who took to the streets in opposition to the plans.

Two Palestinians were killed and several others injured this morning in Israeli air strikes east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, Wafa news agency citing local sources said.

Wafa's correspondent reported that the strikes targeted a gathering in Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis, causing casualties and extensive damage.

At least 13 Palestinians have been killed and dozens injured in Israeli attacks across various parts of Gaza, with 11 fatalities reported in Khan Younis alone since early Thursday.

Meanwhile, Israeli drones have been firing on the Karama and Saftawi areas in northern Gaza City, while the Israeli military continues to demolish residential buildings west of the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip.

Mahmoud Salah, the director-general of Gaza's police force, and his assistant, Hussam Mustafa Shawan, have been killed in Israeli attacks on displacement camps in al-Mawasi, Gaza, local media reported.

Israeli fighter jets bombed the so-called "safe zone" in southern Gaza overnight, resulting in at least 11 fatalities.

A senior Israeli military lawyer has issued a “strong” letter to Major-General Yaron Finkelman, commander of the Southern Command, criticising inadequate assessments of civilian populations in areas targeted by the military in the Gaza Strip, Israel’s Army Radio has reported.

Journalist Doron Kadosh said that Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi expressed concerns over the potential impact on both humanitarian aid distribution and air force strikes, particularly regarding “collateral damage” to uninvolved civilians.

The letter triggered an internal inquiry, which concluded that “there were no deficiencies in the scope of humanitarian aid that entered Beit Lahiya, and that the firing and attacks in the area did not cause any unusual harm to uninvolved people.”

The UN and other aid organisations active in Gaza have condemned Israel for the inadequacy of humanitarian aid and the high number of civilian casualties.