Live: Major clashes break out near Bethlehem after Israeli raid

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that he hoped talks between Lebanon and Israel would lead to a strong Lebanese government and see Hezbollah disarmed.

"We are hopeful that talks between Lebanese authorities and Israelis will create outlines and a way forward that prevents further conflict," Rubio told reporters at his year-end press conference.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday said that the implementation of the second and third phases of the Gaza ceasefire may be an issue that extends well past the term of Donald Trump's presidency. 

Rubio was speaking to reporters at his year-end press conference. 

He had been asked about the status of the ceasefire, to which he responded that the war "ended.... at that scale and scope". 

He acknowledged that "no one's claiming this is going to be easy", and that Israel needs to "feel secure".

Investors in Gaza's future need to have certainty that Hamas will not carry out attacks, Rubio said. 

This is despite hundreds of ceasefire violations carried out by Israel since 10 October, killing children in particular. 

Asked where US allies stood on providing troops for the "international stabilisation force" in Gaza, Rubio described it as something that has yet to be formed. 

Earlier this week, Trump said he believed it was "already running". 

Palestinian citizens of Israel are exposed to levels of violence that have long been familiar to those in occupied territories, writes Nadav Rapaport in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Zidan Agbaria, a Palestinian man from Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel, explained how his son, Mahmoud, was attacked in Tel Aviv.

He said last week his son had arrived in Tel Aviv for construction work and was speaking Arabic on his phone, while "two men who identified themselves as police officers started beating him after they saw that he was Arab".

"They didn’t leave him until they thought he was dead," Agbaria told Middle East Eye.

According to Agbaria, an Israeli woman who was present at the scene called the police, and the two attackers were arrested.

The attackers told the police officers: "Why aren’t you arresting the terrorist?"

Mahmoud was taken to hospital with severe injuries. Almost two weeks after the attack, he remains at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv and has undergone several operations, according to his father.

"It will take him a long time before he can return to work - at least three months. He can only eat liquid food and he has head injuries," his father said.

Agbaria spoke about the fear of his son returning to work in Tel Aviv, a city generally considered a liberal stronghold in Israel.

"I won’t let him go to work there alone," he said.

"He saw death with his own eyes. He came to work, not to die."

Read more: Palestinians face violence on the streets of Israel as racist attacks spread

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has warned that Gaza remains trapped in a “man-made hunger crisis”, despite limited improvements since a ceasefire began in October.

Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the UN Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa), said on Friday that a new report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) showed how fragile recent gains have been.

While Gaza Governorate is no longer formally classified as being in famine, Lazzarini said 1.6 million people across the territory continue to face “high levels of acute food insecurity”.

“#Gaza remains in a man-made hunger crisis,” Lazzarini wrote on X, adding that the situation could rapidly deteriorate without sustained access for humanitarian aid.

He stressed that the crisis could only be brought to an end if supplies were allowed into Gaza “at scale” and humanitarian organisations were able to operate freely.

According to Lazzarini, Unrwa currently has food parcels for 1.1 million people and flour sufficient for Gaza’s entire population ready to enter the enclave, but these supplies remain blocked from delivery.

A global hunger monitor has said that famine conditions in Gaza have eased, but warned that more than 100,000 people are still living in catastrophic food insecurity, with the overall humanitarian situation remaining “critical”.

In its latest assessment published on Friday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said improved access for humanitarian and commercial food supplies following a fragile ceasefire on 10 October had helped pull the enclave back from famine conditions.

The update comes four months after the IPC reported that around 514,000 people - nearly a quarter of Gaza’s population - were experiencing famine. Despite the improvement, the agency cautioned that the territory remains highly vulnerable.

“Under a worst-case scenario, including renewed hostilities and a suspension of humanitarian and commercial inflows, the entire Gaza Strip is at risk of famine through mid-April 2026,” the IPC said, stressing the severity of the ongoing crisis. Israel controls all entry points into Gaza.

According to the report, more than 100,000 people are currently facing catastrophic levels of hunger, although that number is projected to fall to around 1,900 by April 2026 if current conditions hold. The IPC classified the whole of Gaza as being in an emergency phase, one step below catastrophe.

The agency also warned of severe impacts on children and women. Nearly 101,000 children between six and 59 months are expected to suffer acute malnutrition over the next year, including more than 31,000 severe cases requiring treatment.

In the same period, around 37,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women are also projected to face acute malnutrition, the IPC said.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on Friday that Israel’s war on Gaza has devastated classrooms and wiped out educational supplies across the enclave, forcing aid workers to improvise so children can keep learning.

In a post on X, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) said its teams are repurposing leftover wooden pallets into makeshift school desks, creating alternative learning spaces amid dire conditions.

“Even in the most difficult circumstances, learning continues,” the agency said, sharing video footage of staff building desks and organising lessons across the Gaza Strip.

The destruction of schools is part of the wider damage to Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, which has left hundreds of thousands of children without access to formal education.

At least four Palestinian civilians, including a woman, were killed in Israeli air strikes targeting the town of Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, over the past 24 hours, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

According to local sources, multiple air raids struck a group of civilians, and civil defence and ambulance crews were unable to recover the bodies due to the intensity of the bombardment and dangerous conditions.

Earlier on Friday, Israeli forces also carried out air and artillery strikes on Khan Younis and Rafah, in what critics say are ongoing violations of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, in place since October.

Israeli forces launched a series of air and naval attacks early Friday targeting southern Gaza, including Khan Younis and Rafah, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

In Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis, warplanes bombed residential areas while firing heavy machine-gun rounds toward the city’s eastern neighborhoods, accompanied by artillery shelling. Israeli naval vessels also opened fire off the coast of Khan Younis.

In Rafah, Israeli ships fired machine guns at fishing boats near the shore, though no injuries were reported.

The strikes come amid ongoing Israeli violations of the ceasefire in Gaza, which has been in place since 10 October, as military assaults on civilian areas across the Strip continue.

A young Palestinian man was seriously injured after being run over by Israeli settlers in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, early on Friday, Palestinian media reported.

The attack reportedly broke the man's legs, and he was taken to hospital in moderate to stable condition.

The Israeli military said a group of Israeli citizens had “intentionally entered” the city without permission.

The settlers ran over the Palestinian, fled on foot, and were later arrested and handed over to the Israel police, according to the Israeli army which said that entry of Israeli citizens into Area A of the occupied West Bank is “dangerous and prohibited by law”.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here is the latest updates on Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and developments in the occupied West Bank:

•  US envoy Steve Witkoff is set to meet senior officials from Qatar, Egypt and Turkey on Friday in Miami to discuss the next phase of the agreement to halt the war on the Gaza Strip, Axios and Al Jazeera reported.

• Israel’s public broadcaster reported, citing an Israeli official, that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold on Friday  a limited meeting to discuss the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

• In Washington, US president Donald Trump said on Thursday that Netanyahu is likely to visit him in Florida over the Christmas holiday.

• Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is expected to visit the United States, a source close to the plans told the German News Agency (dpa) on Thursday, with the possibility of a trilateral meeting involving US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

• A Palestinian child was wounded on Thursday evening by live fire from Israeli forces during a raid on the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin, after troops had deployed across the area and opened fire, leaving the child with a minor leg injury.

Our live blog will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are the day's key developments:

- A child was killed by the explosion of an ordnance left behind from Israeli military operations in Nuseirat camp in Gaza, while another was wounded in the leg by Israeli gunfire in Qabatiya, south of Jenin, in the occupied West Bank.

- The Trump administration imposed sanctions on two International Criminal Court (ICC) judges for their recent decision to reject an Israeli appeal against the Gaza war crimes investigation.

- Several Israeli members of a far-right settler group entered the Gaza Strip from various access points in order to raise the Israeli flag there, the Israeli army reported. Israeli forces subsequently prevented them from progressing further into the besieged territory, the army said.

- Around 55,000 families across the Gaza Strip have been impacted by heavy rains, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha). Winterisation supplies remain insufficient. 

- Steve Witkoff, US special envoy to the Middle East, will meet Qatari, Egyptian and Turkish officials in Miami on Friday to discuss the next phase of Gaza’s ceasefire agreement, Axios reported.

- Egypt said that the gas deal inked with Israel occurred between private companies with no government intervention, and that it was "strictly commercial".

A Palestinian child was shot in the leg by Israeli forces in in the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin, in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, the Wafa news agency reported. 

The child, who was not identified, was taken to hospital by an ambulance. 

The US, Israel and UAE have discussed using profits from Gaza’s offshore gas supplies to help pay for the reconstruction of the destroyed enclave, one former western official and a current western and Arab official told Middle East Eye.

The discussions have taken various forms, but one includes the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) taking a stake in Gaza’s undeveloped gas fields and those funds contributing to the reconstruction of Gaza, the sources told MEE.

The talks are preliminary, and like much of the post-war planning for Gaza that the US has spearheaded, even before a ceasefire was signed in October, no hard commitments have been made, the sources said. 

But the former western official told MEE that the idea of monetising Gaza’s gas for reconstruction resurfaced in December.

Gas was discovered in Gaza’s marine field in 2000.

Read more: US, Israel and UAE discussed using Gaza gas to fund reconstruction, sources say

US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee met with Palestinian Authority (PA) Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh in Ramallah on Wednesday, the Times of Israel has reported. 

They had only met once before. 

On the agenda was the steep increase in Israeli settler violence against Palestinians - some of them US citizens - in the occupied West Bank, as well as Israel's withholding of billions of dollars of Palestinian tax revenue, because the PA supported European and Canadian decisions to recognise a Palestinian state.

Sheikh also hoped Huckabee would push Israel to allow permits for Palestinian Christians to go to Jerusalem for the Christmas period, the Times of Israel said, citing a PA source.