Author: Steven Sahiounie

The UN Security Council (UNSC) is set to convene later today to vote for a new resolution calling for a suspension of the fighting in Gaza. The draft text “calls for an urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities to allow safe and unhindered humanitarian access in the Gaza Strip for those in need”. The vote comes after it failed to pass a resolution on December 8 calling an immediate ceasefire due to a US veto. Source: AlJazeera

Demonstrators in Germany and the Netherlands expressed support on Sunday for Palestine, with thousands gathering in Berlin to take part in a vehicle convoy and hundreds marching to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. Simultaneously, human rights organizations in Amsterdam called for a cease-fire in Gaza, decrying the Dutch government’s inaction. In Berlin, demonstrators attached Palestinian flags and signs to their vehicles saying “Stop the genocide in Gaza” and “Freedom for Palestine” and later formed a convoy that passed through the central points of the city. While some protesters accompanied the convoy with bicycles on the roadside, a…

More and more displaced Palestinians are being pushed here to the southern part of Gaza Strip where there is a lack of the very basic survival items in these difficult conditions. So far the number of trucks allowed in through Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing is 24. Those are the trucks that used to be allowed through the Rafah crossing, but now they are going through the security clearance at al-Awja checkpoint, that is an Israeli-controlled territory. We are talking about medical supplies and fuel. Anything else will be allowed through the Rafah crossing and will be managed and…

The lack of water or sanitation could soon become equally “dangerous” as the ongoing Israeli bombardment of Gaza, according to a member of Doctors without Borders, known by its French initials MSF. “The water system isn’t working anymore – it has completely collapsed,” Ricardo Martinez, who spent four weeks in Gaza during the war, said in an interview posted on the aid group’s website. “People are being pushed to the limit, having to fight for their survival. At most, people have one litre of water per day – that’s for drinking, washing and cooking,” added Martinez, a logistics coordinator for…

At least 35 Palestinians, including three women, have been arrested in overnight and morning raids in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, right groups have said. The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society in a joint statement said the raids took place in various parts including Hebron, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Tulkarem, Jericho and Tubas. The total number of Palestinians detained in the occupied West Bank since October 7 now stands at 4,575. Source: AlJazeera

Live footage shows a large cloud of smoke billowing from the hospital in Gaza City. Al-Shifa, the largest medical complex in Gaza, has come under repeated attacks from Israeli forces since the war began. We will bring you more on this as further updates come in. Source: AJazeera

Israel’s indiscriminate attacks against Palestinians risk “fuel the conflict for another 50 years” and radicalising young Muslims across the world, Ben Wallace, Britain’s former defence minister, has written in the UK’s Daily Telegraph. “Going after Hamas is legitimate, obliterating vast swathes of Gaza is not. Using proportionate force is legal but collective punishment and forced movement of civilians is not,” he wrote. “We are entering a dangerous period now where Israel’s original legal authority of self-defence is being undermined by its own actions. It is making the mistake of losing its moral authority alongside its legal one.” He accused Israeli…

The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the occupied Gaza Strip, which is a war crime, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today. Israeli forces are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, while willfully impeding humanitarian assistance, apparently razing agricultural areas, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to their survival. Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza on October 7, high-ranking Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and Energy Minister Israel Katz have made public statements expressing their aim to deprive civilians…

Earlier we reported that Israel agreed to allow aid trucks to enter Gaza through the Karem Abu Salem crossing with Israel. But Colonel Elad Goren, head of the civil department at COGAT, said the aid may not reach the people of Gaza because humanitarian agencies have not increased their capacity to distribute relief to meet the demand in the south of the enclave. “If the UN won’t have the capacity to collect and to distribute, it doesn’t matter how many crossings we will open,” Goren said. “They cannot rely upon the same mechanism they had before the war. We adjusted…

In an interview with Al Jazeera, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees Philippe Lazzarini says he hasn’t seen anything of this scale of disaster before. “Everything is absolutely unprecedented and staggering,” Lazzarini told diplomatic correspondent James Bays. “In 40 days, more women and children were killed than the number of civilians in the Ukraine war.” The UNRWA head went on to say the level of destruction resulted in more than 60 percent of infrastructure being destroyed, and more than 90 percent of the population displaced. “Conditions are absolutely appalling. The sanitary conditions are terrible [and] there is hardly…