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

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke on Saturday with his  Egyptian counterpart, Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty to discuss the ongoing hostage negotiations talks between Hamas and Israel, the State Department said. 

The US readout of the call said Blinken and Abdelatty also discussed the post-Assad transition in Syria.

The call come after Israel confirmed on Saturday that negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal had resumed in Qatar. 

Israel has regularly insisted it will not agree to a permanent end to the war in Gaza. 

Israel escalated its attacks on the Gaza Strip on Saturday shelling neighbourhoods, killing security officers protecting aid convoys and blowing up residential buildings.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said a dawn air strike on the home of the Al-Ghoula family in Gaza City killed 11 people, seven of them children.

Images of the neighbourhood of Shujaiya showed residents combing through smoking rubble. Bodies including those of small children were lined up on the ground, shrouded in white sheets.

Elsewhere, the civil defence agency said an Israeli strike killed five security officers tasked with accompanying aid convoys as they drove through the southern city of Khan Younis.

Meanwhile, the Israel army blew up residential buildings north of Gaza City on Saturday, Al Jazeera reported.

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said Hezbollah could respond to Israeli ceasefire violations on Saturday. 

Israel has been regularly bombing Lebanon since a ceasefire with Hezbollah was agreed in late November.

The UN peacekeeping force on Saturday accused Israel of violating UN Security Council Resolution 1701. 

“We have said that we are giving an opportunity to prevent Israeli violations and to implement the agreement and we will exercise patience,” Qassem said, adding that “this does not mean that we will wait the 60 days”.

At least 66 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Al Jazeera reported, citing medical sources. 

Of those killed, at least 41 died in Israeli attacks in the northern part of Gaza. 

A Palestinian teenager was injured by Israeli gunfire in the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

The shooting came amid an Israeli raid the al-Dhahr area of Beit Ummar, Wafa reported. 

The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, known as Unifil, accused the Israeli military on Saturday f destroying a blue barrel marking the border between Israel and Lebanon, as well as a Lebanese army observation tower. 

“This morning peacekeepers observed an IDF bulldozer destroying a blue barrel marking the line of withdrawal between Lebanon and Israel in Labbouneh, as well as an observation tower belonging to the Lebanese Armed Forces immediately beside a UNIFIL position there,” Unifil said. 

The UN force said this “deliberate and direct destruction" was a “flagrant violation of Resolution 1701 and international law." 

The Hezbollah-Israel ceasefire agreement reached late last year mandates both countries abide by Resolution 1701 which ended their 2006 war. 

The Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip is not providing any services to patients or wounded, the Gaza Health Ministry said in a statement released on Telegram. 

The Kamal Adwan and Beit Hanoon hospitals are already out of service amid Israeli attacks. 

Israeli settlers attacked the outskirts of the village of al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah on Saturday, Wafa news agency reported. 

Amin Abu Aliya, head of the village council, said the settlers targeted the western edge of al-Mughayyir, setting fire to agricultural land. 

At least four people were killed and several injured in an Israeli strike on a tent sheltering displaced people in Bureij camp in central Gaza, according to Al Jazeera. 

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said a rocket was fired from northern Gaza and landed at the Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing point. 

Israel is considering limiting humanitarian aid to Gaza after President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House, CNN reported, citing an Israeli official familiar with the matter.

Israel's Channel 12 news also reported that current aid levels may be reduced in the coming weeks following Trump’s inauguration on 20 January. 

“We doubt the amount of aid currently allowed into Gaza will remain the same under Trump’s administration," Channel 12 quoted an Israeli official as saying. 

The Israeli army said a rocket launched from northern Gaza struck the Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing, with no immediate reports of damages or injuries.

Rockets have been launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel for nine days in a row as Israel continues its relentless bombing campaign and ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave.

Hamas has released a video showing proof of life of Israeli captive Liri Albag.

Although the video is undated, Albag says in the recording that she has been held captive for over 450 days.

The Israeli army killed 18-year-old Muhammad Medhat Amin Amer and injured nine other people during a raid on the Balata refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian health ministry confirmed that Amer was shot dead during the overnight raid near the city of Nablus.

The injured are in "critical condition", according to the
Palestine Red Crescent Society.

At least 41 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since dawn, medical sources told Al Jazeera.

Of these, 27 were killed in northern Gaza.

عاجل | مصادر طبية للجزيرة: 41 شهيدا في غارات إسرائيلية على قطاع غزة منذ فجر اليوم 27 منهم شمالي القطاع

— الجزيرة - عاجل (@AJABreaking) January 4, 2025

The Palestinian health ministry reported that 59 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza in the past 24 hours, raising the total death toll to 45,717 killed since 7 October 2023.

Additionally, 108,856 have been wounded since the war began.