Gaza Live: Israeli air strike takes out 25 members of same family

Good afternoon,

Here is the latest update on events unfolding in Gaza and across the region as Israel continues its bombardment of the besieged enclave.

• The White House said it is "not there yet" with a ceasefire and captive deal for Gaza. Speaking to NBC News, National Security Adviser Jack Sullivan said Washington is "engaged deeply with key players in the region".
• A spokesperson for Yemen's Houthi group said it used a hypersonic missile to launch a military operation against a "vital target" in central Israel.
• Gaza's civil defence said Israel killed at least 100 Palestinians over the last 24 hours in Gaza.
• The UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) said it would suspend aid delivery through the Kerem Shalom crossing because of security concerns.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is closely watching developments unfolding in Syria after a coalition of opposition groups took control of the city of Aleppo. 

“We are constantly watching events in Syria. We are determined to defend the vital interests of Israel and to maintain the achievements of war,” Netanyahu said, visiting new military recruits at a base in central Israel.

US national security adviser Jack Sullivan told NBC News that the White House was working on a ceasefire and captive release deal in Gaza but was "not there yet". 

“We are working actively to try to make it happen. We are engaged deeply with the key players in the region, and there is activity even today,” Sullivan said, according to a transcript released by NBC.

“There will be further conversations and consultations, and our hope is that we can generate a ceasefire and hostage deal, but we’re not there yet.”

The Palestinian Ministry of Health has said Israeli forces killed two people in the occupied West Bank on Sunday in Sir, Jenin.

The ministry did not reveal the identities of the two people killed.

Yemen's Houthis launched a military operation on a "vital target" in central Israel using a hypersonic missile, the group's military spokesman, Yahya Sarea, said in a televised address on Sunday.

The group will continue its attacks until "Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip is halted and the siege is lifted", Sarea added.

Reporting by Reuters 

Gaza's civil defence said that Israeli strikes had killed at least 100 people in the last 24 hours after a heavy night of bombardment across the Gaza Strip. 

“Nearly 100 martyrs were killed in the Gaza Strip within 24 hours as a result of the continuous Israeli bombing operations on homes and citizens’ gatherings,” the agency said in a statement.

The agency’s spokesman said the largest loss of life took place in the bombing of a home belonging to the al-Araj family in the Tall az-Zaatar neighbourhood, which housed more than 40 people.

The statement added: “Until this moment, civil defence crews are prevented from exercising their duties in northern Gaza, and this has led to hundreds of citizens remaining under the rubble.”

The UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) said it would suspend aid delivery through the Kerem Shalom crossing due to security concerns. 

“We are pausing the delivery of aid through Kerem Shalom … the road out of this crossing has not been safe for months," Unrwa chief, Philippe Lazzarini, said on X. 

"On 16 November, a large convoy of aid trucks was stolen by armed gangs. Yesterday, we tried to bring in a few food trucks on the same route. They were all taken."

#BREAKING 🛑:
We are pausing the delivery of aid through Kerem Shalom, the main crossing point for humanitarian aid into #Gaza.

The road out of this crossing has not been safe for months.
On 16 November, a large convoy of aid trucks was stolen by armed gangs.
Yesterday, we…

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) December 1, 2024

Israeli far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not want to accept the current ceasefire and hostage deal as it would lead to Ben Gvir's party leaving the government. 

Speaking to Israeli Army Radio, Ben Gvir said he knows "the prime minister really, really doesn't want Otzma Yehudit to leave the government".

"We are currently on the right path in Gaza. Ideas like settlements in the Gaza Strip are welcome," said Ben Gvir. 

"Conquering Gaza is definitely the idea. But, I must admit, that's not enough for me. I also want to encourage migration. I think we should allow [Palestinians] to migrate voluntarily to their countries. 

"[I am] working hard with the prime minister to make this happen, and he is beginning to show some openness on the matter."

Medical sources told Reuters that Israeli strikes on Gaza had killed at least 15 Palestinians on Sunday.

Medics said an Israeli air strike killed six people in a house in the central Gaza camp of Nuseirat, and three more in Gaza City. 

Two children were killed when a missile hit a tent encampment in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, while four other people were killed in an air strike in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, medics told Reuters.

Residents said the military blew up clusters of houses in the northern Gaza areas of Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, where Israeli forces have operated since October this year.

Palestinians say Israel's operations on the northern edge of the enclave are part of a plan to clear people out through forced evacuations and bombardments to create a buffer zone - an allegation the army denies.

Here are the latest updates from the Israeli war on Gaza, now in its 422nd day:

• Two Palestinian prisoners from the Gaza Strip have died in notorious Israeli detention where torture is widespread, a prisoners' rights monitoring group said on Saturday.

• Meanwhile, air strikes across the besieged enclave killed at least 19 Palestinians on Sunday morning, according to the civil defence rescue-and-search service. 

• In the occupied West Bank, a drone strike targeted Jenin. Ambulance teams said Israeli forces were preventing them from reaching the scene. 

Hello Middle East Eye readers. On Saturday, Israel continued its monthslong siege on northern Gaza, bombing several sites in the area. One particular strike on a residence in the Tal al-Zataar area killed more than 40 Palestinians, in the latest high death toll massacre.

The total number of Palestinians killed since the beginning of Saturday is at least 100.

Also on Saturday, Israeli forces killed aid workers from two different international charities. Save The Children said that one of its staff members was killed in a strike, while three of World Central Kitchen's workers were also killed.

Meanwhile, Hamas' armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, released a video of an Israeli-American soldier the group is holding captive in Gaza. The soldier pleaded with US President-elect Donald Trump to secure a deal that would see all captives in Gaza be released.

Here's what else you need to know about Saturday's developments in Gaza:

• Hamas has called for an international probe to be conducted into Israel's alleged use of weapons that are "vaporising" the bodies of Palestinians.

• Israel launched several attacks on southern Lebanon, despite the ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah. One Israeli drone attack struck the Rub Thalatheen village in southern Lebanon, killing two people and wounded two others. Another Israeli attack hit a car in the Majdal Zoun village.

• At least six Palestinians were killed by an Israeli strike on a house sheltering displaced people in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

• The Israeli army said that one of its soldiers, 20-year-old Zamir Burke was killed in combat in northern Gaza.

• The Commission of Prisoners' Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner's society said that Israeli forces had arrested at least 16 Palestinians in the West Bank. The arrests took place across the governorates of Qalqilya, Nablus, Hebron, Tulkarem and Jerusalem. 

• Israel's former defence minister Moshe Ya'alon said Israel's campaign in Gaza is going down the path of ethnic cleansing in Gaza.

The international charity Save the Children said an Israeli air strike killed one of its staff members in Gaza's Khan Younis.

This is the aid organisation's second staffer killed in Gaza since the Israeli war began in October 2023.

An Israeli drone attack struck the Rub Thalatheen village in southern Lebanon, killing two people and wounded two others, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.

Another Israeli attack hit a car in the Majdal Zoun village.

Despite Israel agreeing to a ceasefire with Hezbollah, Israel has maintained that it reserves the right to launch an attack on Lebanon if there area perceived ceasefire violations by Hezbollah.

An Al Jazeera correspondent from Gaza has reported that 100 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli bombardment since the early hours of Saturday morning.

At least six Palestinians have been killed by an Israeli strike on a house sheltering displaced people in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, according to multiple reports.