Live: Major clashes break out near Bethlehem after Israeli raid

A Palestinian prisoner has died in Israeli custody, the Wafa news agency reported on Wednesday, citing official sources.

According to the report, the Palestinian General Authority for Civil Affairs informed the Detainees’ Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society of the death of Abdul Rahman Sufian Muhammad al-Sabateen, 21, from the town of Husan, west of Bethlehem. He died at Shaare Zedek Medical Centre in Jerusalem.

Al-Sabateen had been held since 24 June 2025 and remained in detention until his death.

The agency said his death brings to 85 the number of prisoners and detainees who have died in Israeli custody since October 2023, based on cases whose identities are known.

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, a leading global genocide prevention group, said on Tuesday that recent remarks on Gaza by former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton amounted to “outright genocide denial”.

The group criticised Clinton's claim that Israel is suffering from “the worst PR of any group” and that young Americans are influenced by “pure propaganda” on TikTok, saying that it misrepresents growing public concern over Israel’s war on Gaza.

“Young people in the US are not stupid or gullible. They simply reject genocide – something the Secretary might consider doing as well,” the statement said, adding that Americans have witnessed “two years of videos depicting Israel’s genocide against Palestinians,” including footage from journalists and civilians in Gaza.

"Secretary Clinton’s remarks are not only inaccurate, they are also a shameful example of the lengths to which people complicit in genocide will go to to deny its existence," it said.

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security feels called to point out that former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s recent remarks at the Israel Hayom Summit on 2 December amount to outright genocide denial. During her remarks, the Secretary correctly noted… pic.twitter.com/sG05xT24pz

— Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention (@LemkinInstitute) December 9, 2025

Israeli settlers abducted a Palestinian farmer from the town of Nahalin near Bethlehem after assaulting him in the Banias Mountains area, the Palestinian Information Centre reported.

#شاهد| قطعان المستوطنون يختطفون مزارعاً فلسطينياً من بلدة نحالين في بيت لحم جنوب الضفة الغربية بعد الاعتداء عليه في منطقة جبل بانياس. pic.twitter.com/wCTmoJIgrO

— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) December 10, 2025

Good morning Middle East Eye readers,

Here are the latest updates:

• The Israeli military is fully aware and cooperating with Israeli settlers building new farm outposts in the occupied West Bank, according to a military officer who spoke with Israel's Kan public broadcaster.

• Two Palestinians, one 13 years old, were shot by the Israeli military in a refugee camp near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the Red Crescent said.

• Israel is expected to reopen the Allenby crossing, the sole transit point between the West Bank and Jordan that was closed in September, on Wednesday under US pressure, Haaretz reported.

• UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing tells Al Jazeera Arabic says the situation in the Gaza Strip is catastrophic, and the world remains silent regarding Israel's refusal to allow aid into the Strip despite the ceasefire.

• Israeli forces arrest approximately 30 Palestinians, mostly former prisoners, during raids in Nablus, Al Jazeera Arabic reported. The military also arrested 10 other Palestinians in Salfit in the West Bank.

• An intense storm in Gaza flooded the tents of displaced families as heavy rains poured across the besieged strip.

Good evening Middle East Eye readers,

Hamas has told mediators that it is prepared to freeze all offensive operations against Israel from Gaza for up to a decade, and it is prepared to bury its weapons, if Israeli forces fully withdraw from the enclave, a senior Palestinian official familiar with the discussions told Middle East Eye in an exclusive report. 

Meanwhile, inside Gaza, the Palestinian Civil Defence on Tuesday recovered the bodies of at least 15 Palestinians from the al-Shifa Hospital courtyard area in Gaza City.

Israel continued its attacks on Gaza. At least one Palestinian was killed and another injured by Israeli fire on Tuesday evening, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Here is what else you need to know:

• The United Nations has condemned Israel for trying to divide the Gaza Strip
• Malnutrition among pregnant and breastfeeding women in the Gaza Strip is having a "devastating domino effect" on thousands of newborns, the UN warned
• The Israeli military is demolishing buildings in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza
• At least three recently released Palestinian detainees were injured at a checkpoint in occupied East Jerusalem

The Palestinian Civil Defence has recovered the bodies of at least 15 Palestinians from the al-Shifa Hospital courtyard area in Gaza City.

The discovery comes as part of work to retrieve Palestinians killed by Israel and buried in what Gaza’s Government Media Office said was a "mass grave" discovered in May 2024. 

The total number of bodies recovered from Gaza’s largest medical facility is now 113, underscoring the scope of Israeli killing in the area. 

“Several bodies remain missing on the hospital grounds, as work is still ongoing to retrieve them,” the Palestinian Civil Defence said. 

It added that four of the bodies had not been identified.

At least one Palestinian was killed and another injured by Israeli fire on Tuesday evening, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, citing medical sources.

An Israeli army sniper killed a 35-year-old Palestinian man in the al-Atatra area in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, a minor was injured when Israeli soldiers opened fire at tents housing displaced people in the area of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. 

The United Nations has condemned Israel for trying to divide the Gaza Strip.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric was responding to Israeli Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir’s assertion that the so-called “yellow line” that currently divides the Gaza Strip is the “new border” with Israel.

Israeli soldiers now occupy roughly 58 percent of Gaza. US and Israeli officials have discussed rebuilding this largely empty area, while leaving the portion of Gaza controlled by Hamas unreconstructed. 

Dujarric said the idea of dividing Gaza “seems to me to go against the spirit and the letter of the Trump peace plan”.

“We firmly stand against any change of the borders of Gaza and Israel,” he added. 

Malnutrition among pregnant and breastfeeding women in the Gaza Strip is having a "devastating domino effect" on thousands of newborns, the United Nations warned on Tuesday.

Unicef, the UN children's agency, flagged an alarming surge in the number of babies born weighing less than 2.5 kilogrammes (5.5 pounds) in the Palestinian territory.

"Malnourished mothers" give birth to underweight or premature babies, who either "die... or survive, only to face malnutrition themselves or potential lifelong medical complications", Unicef spokesperson Tess Ingram told a press briefing in Geneva, speaking from central Gaza.

She added that low birth weight infants were about 20 times more likely to die than infants of normal weight.

The Israeli military is demolishing buildings in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, according to a report by Al Jazeera Arabic. 

Israel has reduced the vast majority of Gaza to rubble since 7 October 2023. 

There has been no movement on reconstruction despite a ceasefire being signed in October 2025. Meanwhile, the Israeli military has violated the ceasefire in at least 700 attacks. 

Hamas has told mediators that it is prepared to freeze all offensive operations against Israel from Gaza for up to a decade, and it is prepared to bury its weapons, if Israeli forces fully withdraw from the enclave, a senior Palestinian official familiar with the discussions told Middle East Eye in an exclusive report. 

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, said the offer was presented to Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators in Cairo last week.

The offer represents what he described as a substantive move by Hamas intended to give momentum to the next phase of the ceasefire negotiations.

"The proposal is clear," the official said.

"Hamas is offering a guarantee that no weapon will be fired from Gaza against Israel, and it will do that by burying the weapons. It offered to establish a hudna (a term used in Islamic tradition to describe a long-term truce) for seven to ten years between Gaza and Israel, and Hamas will not use the weapons," the official added. 

Read More: Hamas proposes long-term ceasefire if Israel fully withdraws from Gaza

At least three recently released Palestinian detainees were injured at a checkpoint in occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. 

The three detainees were injured by Israeli soldiers at al-Jib checkpoint, according to a report by Al Jazeera Arabic. 

The UK's Foreign Office announced on Tuesday that it will host a conference next year to help establish an International Peace Fund for Israel and Palestine.

A Foreign Office press release said the meeting will be held at Lancaster House and will rely on “peacebuilding expertise from Northern Ireland and ongoing Western Balkans work to support Middle East efforts”.

It will gather civil society leaders and intends to set up a fund to financially support “peacebuilding efforts to deliver genuine change".

For 24 years, every time Intisar visited her son Habis Bayyoud in an Israeli prison, he told her the same thing: “My freedom will be the day I can hug you outside these walls.”

The former Palestinian prisoner thought that day had finally come in October, when he was released and deported to Egypt under the Gaza ceasefire and prisoner-swap deal between Israel and Hamas.

In the West Bank village of al-Mazra’a al-Gharbiya near Ramallah, Intisar, 78, was overjoyed when she saw his name on the release list.

Even when an Israeli intelligence officer told her he would be sent to Egypt rather than home, she tried to console herself: “It doesn’t matter, as long as he’s free.

What she never expected was that the Israeli military would bar the entire family from leaving the occupied West Bank, leaving Habis alone in Egypt.

'This is revenge’: Israel deports Palestinian prisoners then bars families from visiting

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that three civilians were wounded on Tuesday by Israeli gunfire, after troops advanced and set up a checkpoint close to the entrance of a town in al-Quneitra, south of Damascus.

Israeli forces fired live ammunition at Syrian residents, who were protesting against the persistent violations and advances of Israeli forces in their territory.

Such violations have continued since December 2024, when Israel occupied the United Nations designated buffer zone - the strategic heights of Mount Hermon - which overlooks Israel, Lebanon and Syria.

SOHR also reported that Israeli forces on Tuesday had blocked roads to civilians and halted traffic to allow for the passage of their convoy.