Live: Major clashes break out near Bethlehem after Israeli raid

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel would spend $110 billion on developing its own arms and reducing dependency on other countries.

"We will continue to acquire essential supplies while independently arming ourselves," Netanyahu said at a ceremony for new pilots.

"I don't know if a country can be completely independent but we will strive ... to ensure our arms are produced as much as possible in Israel," he said. "Our goal is to build an independent arms industry for the state of Israel and reduce the dependency on any party, including allies."

The Israeli army has demolished the home of a Palestinian accused of carrying out an attack which killed an Israeli earlier this year, the military said on Wednesday.

On 10 July, two attackers killed Shalev Zvuluny, 22, in a shopping area near Jerusalem, before the Israeli army shot them dead.

On Wednesday, Israeli army bulldozers entered the village of Bazzaryah in the occupied West Bank, destroying the family home of one of the attackers after it had been evacuated.

Israeli forces "demolished the home of the terrorist who carried out the shooting and stabbing attack at the Gush junction", the army said in a statement.

Hazem Yassine, head of the Bazzaryah municipal council, denounced what he said was a "heinous crime". 

He told AFP that Israeli forces had sealed off the village's entrances since dawn in preparation for the demolition.

"Schools were closed as a precaution," he said, adding that the family of the alleged attacker had moved out around a month ago after being notified of the decision to demolish the house.

An AFP photographer saw children climbing on piles of rubble after the demolition, waving the Palestinian flag.

Israel regularly demolishes the homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out attacks - an act which has been denounced as collective punishment and is widely considered by legal experts to be a violation of international law.

Israeli police arrested a Palestinian man dressed as Santa Claus during a raid on a Christmas celebration in Haifa earlier this week, a local rights group has said.

Police forcibly dispersed festivities held by Palestinian Christian citizens of Israel in the Wadi Nisnas neighbourhood on Sunday and confiscated equipment from the event. 

According to the Mossawa Centre, an organisation advocating for the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel, police used excessive force while detaining the man dressed as Santa Claus, as well as a DJ and a street vendor.

All three were released on Monday but were expected to be summoned to court again.

Mossawa said police also raided a music institute without legal authorisation.

Read more: Israeli forces detain Santa Clause in raid on Palestinian Christmas celebration

Israeli military on Wednesday targeted civilians, including women and children, with smoke bombs in the northern Quneitra countryside of Syria, local media reported. 

The Syrian Arab News Agency (Sana) said a group of women and children were attacked by an Israeli military unit while they were collecting wild mushrooms in the area between the villages of al-Adnaniyah and Ruwayhinah. 

A separate Israeli patrol also raided the Jamla village in the Daraa countryside, positioning itself around residential neighbourhoods and causing panic among civilians.

Israeli forces also stormed and searched houses in the area and detained two young Syrians, according to Sana. 

Israeli forces continued on Wednesday to bulldoze and uproot olive trees in the Salfit Governorate in the northwestern West Bank to expand illegal settlements, Wafa news reported. 

Israeli troops razed dozens of olive trees in Deir Istiya's al-Masrara roundabout area, northwest of Salfit, the report said. 

The soldiers also uprooted over 70 ancient olive trees at the entrance to the town of Kafr Haris, north of Salfit. 

The human tragedies caused by Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza are countless.

Nearly two million Palestinians are living through pain and grief, and every family carries its own story of devastation, amid horrific massacres and the destruction of homes.

For a mother, the death of a child is a heartbreak that lasts a lifetime. In Gaza, it has reached an unprecedented and unimaginable scale. Death has not come one by one, but in batches.

On 24 May, Dr Alaa al-Najjar, a paediatrician, lost nine of her children in a single Israeli air strike. Her home was bombed while she was at work in Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, trying to save the wounded.

No words are sufficient to capture what these mothers have endured. Yet some, whose children were killed by Israel, have chosen to share their stories. I bring together the accounts of four mothers, drawn from direct conversations and words they shared publicly on Facebook.

Their experiences offer only a glimpse of the overwhelming catastrophe families across Gaza have faced since October 2023.

What it's like to survive in Gaza when your children are killed Opinion by Ahmed Abu Artema

Four senior former army officers have written to the UK prime minister calling for a full arms embargo on Israel and a suspension of involvement with any Israel-linked defence firms. 

The Times reported on Tuesday that the signatories told Keir Starmer that despite the ceasefire in Gaza, “now is not the time to return to business as usual with the Israeli government”. 

They called on sanctions on the Israeli government to go further. 

Among the letter's signatories was John Deverell, who served in the British army for more than three decades. He was also defence attache in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, including at the time of the 11 September terror attacks. 

The other signatories were Andrew Graham, the former director general of the UK defence academy; Peter Currie, a retired major general, and Charlie Herbert, a former senior army commander in Afghanistan. 

Read more: Ex-senior army officers urge UK to 'cut all military collaboration with Israel'

Israeli forces on Wednesday shot a Palestinian youth in the foot during a raid in the town of Birzeit, north of Ramallah, the Wafa news agency reported. 

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said its teams treated the young man, who was injured by live fire during the Israeli incursion.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Wednesday met with Hamas political bureau officials in Ankara to discuss the ceasefire in Gaza and advancing the agreement to its second phase, the Reuters news agency reported. 

The report said that Hamas officials told Fidan that they had fulfilled their requirements as part of the ceasefire deal, but that Israel's continued targeting of Gaza aimed to prevent the agreement from moving to the next phase.

The Hamas members also said humanitarian aid entering Gaza was not sufficient, and that supplies including medication, equipment for housing, and fuel were needed, the report added.

Reporting by Reuters

Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network director Amjad al-Shawa said on Wednesday that about one and a half million citizens lost their homes as a result of the Israeli aggression.

Shawa said the sector needs more than 300,000 tents to shelter the displaced, but only 60,000 have arrived.

He added that Israel's preventing the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unwra) from bringing in aid constitutes the biggest challenge and doubles the burden on civil society organisations, which are also suffering from the destruction of their headquarters and a sharp decline in humanitarian funding.

The Israeli military on Wednesday said it struck several sites in southern Lebanon.

In a statement issued on Telegram, the military said, "As part of these strikes, the IDF [Israeli army] dismantled Hezbollah military structures and additional terrorist infrastructure from which Hezbollah terrorists had recently operated."

Despite a ceasefire that came into force in November last year, Israel continues to carry out near-daily strikes in southern Lebanon.  

On 30 October, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun instructed the commander of the army to "confront any Israeli incursion into southern Lebanon" after Israeli forces crossed the border, entered a municipal building in the southern town of Blida and killed an employee. 

Israeli forces on Wednesday demolished two Palestinian homes in the Jabal al-Mukaber neighbourhood, southeast of occupied Jerusalem, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. 

Israeli troops stormed the al-Sal'a area of ​​the neighbourhood with heavy machinery and began demolishing two homes belonging to brothers Mahmoud and Wasim Mashahra, the report said. 

Israeli forces and settlers on Wednesday continued their incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque, with more than 120 settlers and students storming the courtyards, Palestinians media reported.

Arab48 reported that along with the settlers, some 18 members of Israel's intelligence and police forces also barged into the mosque. 

A Palestinian man was killed on Wednesday while several others were wounded in Israeli gunfire from two separate incidents in Jabalia, northern Gaza, and east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza.

Ayoub Abdel Ayesh Nasr was killed while two others were wounded after Israeli forces opened fire on a group of Palestinians in Jabalia, Wafa news reported, quoting medical sources. 

Meanwhile, three other Palestinians were wounded by Israeli fire east of Khan Younis.

The Israeli army on Wednesday morning launched air strikes and targeted areas along the yellow line in Gaza with tank fire, Arab48 news organisation reported. 

The development comes as Israeli forces launched a wide-scale arrest campaign across the occupied West Bank, detaining at least 43 Palestinians, Wafa news reported.