Live: Major clashes break out near Bethlehem after Israeli raid

Dozens of residents in Gaza held funeral prayers for 25 Palestinians, including children and a journalist, who were pulled from the rubble of a house in Khan Younis bombed by Israel, Palestinian media reported.

Arab48 said the prayers were held at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis before the bodies were buried in the city’s cemetery.

On Thursday, Gaza’s civil defence agency said the bodies of 25 people, including members of al-Astal family - among them journalist Heba al-Abadla and her mother - were recovered from under the rubble after excavation work lasting several hours.

An Israeli drone on Friday dropped a bomb on the town of Odaisseh in Lebanon, local media reported. 

Earlier, Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) had reported that Israeli warplanes carried out a series of air strikes targeting the Kfarmilki–Bsaliya valley.

"Enemy aircraft are also conducting air raids on the highlands of Hermel," the report by NNA said. 

Footage shared by Israeli broadcaster Kan and journalist Ariel Idan shows the extensive destruction of the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

“Everything here is almost completely destroyed.”

Footage shared by Israeli channel Kan and Israeli journalist Ariel Idan has captured the extensive destruction of the Jabalia Refugee Camp in northern Gaza pic.twitter.com/FoxohL5RUd

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) December 26, 2025

Israeli warplanes on Friday carried out intense air strikes east of the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian media reported. 

Wafa news agency said that artillery shelling and demolitions continued across the eastern areas of Gaza. 

At least four air strikes targeted areas across Khan Younis, along with heavy gunfire from helicopters and Israeli military vehicles positioned around the city.

The report said that Israeli forces also carried out large-scale demolition operations, destroying homes as warplanes launched an air strike in the area. 

In Rafah, Israeli helicopters fired on residential neighbourhoods, as Israeli naval ships continuously targeted the coast of Khan Younis. 

Read more: Israel attacks Khan Younis by air and sea in latest Gaza ceasefire violations

The Israeli military said on Friday that it conducted air strikes inside Lebanon, targeting what it described as a Hezbollah Radwan Force training ground and weapon storage.

Lebanese media reported multiple air strikes near the town of Bsaliya in the Tuffah region of southern Lebanon, as well as near the city of Hermel and in the Beqaa valley in eastern Lebanon.

Israeli warplanes on Friday carried out intense air strikes east of the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian media reported. 

Wafa news agency said that artillery shelling and demolitions continued across the eastern areas of Gaza. 

At least four air strikes targeted areas across Khan Younis, alongside heavy gunfire from helicopters and Israeli military vehicles positioned around the city.

The report said that Israeli forces also carried out large-scale demolition operations, destroying homes as warplanes launched an air strike in the area. 

In Rafah, Israeli helicopters fired on residential neighbourhoods, as Israeli naval ships continuously targeted the coast of Khan Younis. 

Israeli military on Friday assaulted two Palestinians and stole around 150 sheep during an attack on a farm in the town of Deir Dibwan, east of Ramallah, local media reported. 

The report by Wafa news said that the forces raided a farm owned by Hassan Mohammad Ghannam in the Khallet al-Louz area east of the town, brutally assaulting two workers before stealing 150 sheep and fleeing the scene.

Israeli forces on Friday closed the Atara military checkpoint north of Ramallah, disrupting the movement of Palestinians, according to Palestinian media reports. 

Wafa news said the closure had been in place since the early hours on Friday and disrupted the movement of Palestinians travelling to villages west of Ramallah, as well as those coming from the northern West Bank districts.

The US may announce a peace council, a technocratic government and a stabilisation force in Gaza next month, Israel's Channel 12 quoted White House officials as saying. 

The officials said that US President Donald Trump wants to see the announcement of a peace council and that Trump's team is "increasingly frustrated with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's steps that undermine the agreement".

The officials accused Israel of stalling on implementing the ceasefire agreement and violating it, according to Israel's Channel 12.

"It seems that the Israelis have been regretting the Gaza agreement for some time," the official said. 

An armed Israeli soldier ran over a Palestinian Muslim man with his four-wheel-drive vehicle while he was praying in Deir Jarir, east of Ramallah.

Israeli media reported that the perpetrator was a reservist who had earlier opened fire inside the village, where five Israelis were arrested for throwing stones at a Palestinian house, wounding an eight-month-old baby.

Israeli settlers on Friday expanded an illegal settlement outpost on Palestinian land in the city of Nablus, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank, Anadolu news agency reported. 

Settler groups added prefabricated houses to an illegal settlement outpost established on Mount Qarqafa, southeast of Nablus, according to the human rights group al-Baidar.

The report said nearly 451,000 Israelis are living in settlements in the occupied West Bank, with around 230,000 more in East Jerusalem, on seized Palestinian land.

Israeli forces on Friday opened fire towards the eastern areas of Khan Younis city in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian media reported. 

Gaza-based journalists said Israeli warships fired heavily off the coast of Khan Younis and also opened fire towards the city. 

Reports said the Israeli army continued to demolish homes in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City, as Israeli artillery shelling targeted eastern areas of the city.

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates from Israel's war on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank:

• Israel targeted eastern Gaza and Khan Younis with back-to-back air strikes, while the Israeli army continued to demolish homes in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City. 

• Journalists based in Gaza reported that Israeli warships were firing heavily off the coast of Khan Younis and also opened fire towards the eastern areas of the city. 

• Israeli settler groups expanded an illegal settlement outpost in the city of Nablus in the northern part of the occupied West Bank and added prefabricated houses to the outpost on Mount Qarqafa. 

• An Israeli soldier ran over a Palestinian with his four-wheel-drive vehicle while he was praying in Deir Jarir, east of Ramallah. The video was shared with shock on social media platforms within a few hours.

• The Israeli army said it intercepted two drones that infiltrated from the direction of the Egyptian border.

Five Israeli settlers are said to have been arrested on Thursday after they attacked a Palestinian home and injured an eight-month-old girl in the occupied West Bank.

A group of armed settlers attacked homes and property in the town of Sair, north of Hebron.

An eight-month-old infant suffered "injuries to the face and head" in the attacks on Wednesdy, according to Wafa news agency.

The attacks have been called "serious, violent incidents" by the Israeli police, who rarely condemn instances of sttler brutality, wbich have sharply incresed since Israel's war on Gaza that started in 2023.

More than half a million Israelis live in settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law.

The West Bank is home to around three million Palestinians and has been occupied since 1967. 

Israeli soldiers killed two more Palestinians who crossed the 'Yellow Line' on Thursday (Christmas day).

Soldiers had also killed a Palestinian earlier in the day who had tried to cross the 'Yellow Line'. 

Personal information about the victims have not yet been released. 

The Israeli military have taken over more than 50 per cent of the Gaza Strip, demarcated by the 'Yellow Line',  which remains largely unmarked on the ground.

Israeli soldiers have been killing people who are crossing the 'Yellow Line' on a daily basis and have consistently released statements that accuse the victims of being "terrorists," including two young cbildren. 

Evidence of any of the Palestinians killed being terrorists has yet to be released.