The Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that the death toll from the Israeli attacks had risen to 22,313, while the number of injured reached 57,296. The ministry said that the Israeli forces had killed 128 people and wounded 261 in 10 massacres against families in Gaza in the past 24 hours.
This coincided with the ongoing Israeli airstrikes on the Nuseirat camp in the centre of the Gaza Strip and Khan Yunis in its south.
In a related development, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club revealed that the Israeli army had arrested about 11,000 people in the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem, in 2023, as well as some arrests from Gaza before 7 October. The club said that more than 5,500 people were arrested after 7 October.
The Prisoners’ Club stated that 300 women and 1,085 children were among the detainees and that the arrests in the last three months of 2023 accounted for half of the total arrests in that year.
Meanwhile, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that the international community had to impose a solution to the conflict between the Palestinians and Israel, as he believed that the two sides would never reach an agreement.
Borrell had previously criticized the Israeli military tactics that resulted in the deaths of civilians in the Gaza Strip, but he did not condemn the Israeli war, which he viewed as a reaction to the Palestinian resistance operation on 7 October.
Furthermore, the German Foreign Ministry expressed its strong rejection of the “unhelpful statements” of Israeli government ministers about the displacement of the population of Gaza.
The German Foreign Ministry spokesperson said: “The Palestinians should not be forced out of Gaza, nor should the size of the Strip be reduced,” stressing his country’s support for the two-state solution, “because it is the only viable way for Israelis and Palestinians to live together.”
In a related matter, Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh voiced his opposition to creating a corridor between Cyprus and Gaza, fearing that it would be used later for deportation purposes. Shtayyeh urged the world to drop food by parachutes and open the crossings to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, amid the continued starvation crimes by the occupation in the Strip.
Shtayyeh also thanked South Africa for filing a lawsuit against Israel at the International Court of Justice for committing genocide in its war on the Gaza Strip.
On 31 December, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen announced that he had finalized all the arrangements for establishing a water corridor from Cyprus to the Gaza Strip, in a step aimed at achieving a total separation between Israel and Gaza.
On 11 January, the International Court of Justice will hold its first session to examine the lawsuit filed by the Republic of South Africa against Israel for accusing the latter of committing genocide in its war on the Gaza Strip.
The occupation army reported that 25 soldiers were wounded in the past 24 hours, following the death of an officer in clashes in northern Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades – the military wing of Hamas – said that its fighters and the Mujahideen Brigades fired a surface-to-air missile at a helicopter east of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.
The Brigades said that they hit an Israeli tank with an Al-Yassin 105 missile in Khan Yunis and that they, along with the Mujahideen Brigades, shot down an Israeli Hermes 900 reconnaissance plane with an anti-aircraft missile east of Gaza City.
They also said that they attacked an Israeli bulldozer and tank with a Shawaz device and an Al-Yassin 105 shell, east of the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood in Gaza. They added that they shelled a command centre and a gathering of occupation soldiers east of Jabal al-Rayes in the Al-Tuffah neighbourhood with mortar shells.
The Al-Qassam Brigades announced that they seized an Israeli drone during an operation south of the Zaytoun neighbourhood in Gaza City, as fighting continued in the centre of the Strip. They said that their fighters, in cooperation with the Al-Quds Brigades, shelled a group of Israeli vehicles east of the Al-Tuffah and Al-Daraj neighbourhoods with mortar shells.
In the past few days, the Al-Qassam Brigades claimed their control over two Israeli marches in the middle of the Gaza Strip.
The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, announced that they destroyed an Israeli Merkava tank with a Piercing device and that they targeted another tank northeast of Khan Yunis.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Al-Quds Brigades said that they sniped two Israeli soldiers north of the Bureij camp, and confirmed that one was killed and the other was injured. They said that they bombed occupation military forces near Imam Ali Mosque in the Ma’an area, east of Khan Yunis, with 60-caliber mortar shells.
At the same time, the Houthi military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, warned the United States or others against any action or measure that would protect commercial ships going to Israel. He emphasized the continuation of navigation in the Red Sea for all ships, except those heading to the occupied territories.
