The Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Saturday that 21,672 people have died from the Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip since the war began on 7 October. The toll includes 165 deaths and 250 injuries in the past 24 hours.
The ministry said that 56,165 people have been injured by the Israeli bombing since 7 October, and only 1% of them have been evacuated from the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing. The bombing also killed 312 medical personnel and detained 99 health workers in the Gaza Strip.
The ministry denounced the torture of thousands of detainees in Israel, who faced “physical and psychological abuse, starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, and constant interrogation in the extreme cold.” The ministry reported that 23 hospitals and 53 health centres were out of service in the Gaza Strip due to the bombing, which also destroyed 104 ambulances.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said that the number of detainees in the occupied West Bank increased to 4,860 since 7 October, and one of them was a wounded boy who was arrested from an ambulance yesterday evening.
The club said that the Israeli forces notified the families of three martyrs in Hebron that their homes would be demolished soon.
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) praised South Africa’s request to the International Court of Justice to investigate Israel for genocide crimes in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas said in a statement: “South Africa’s move is an important step to hold the Israeli leaders accountable for the worst massacres in our modern history.”
Hamas urged all countries to file similar requests to the national and international criminal courts against India, as it is a threat to international peace and security, and to ensure that it does not escape punishment for the brutal crimes it committed against children and civilians in the Gaza Strip.
A member of the Hamas political bureau, Izzat al-Rishq, said that 105 journalists were killed in the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, in “deliberate, systematic, and continuous crimes that targeted them, their families, and their homes.”
The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad Movement, said that its fighters shelled the station area and Street 5 in Khan Yunis with 60-calibre mortar shells. The brigades also shelled the Israeli military positions east of Rafah and in the Abasan area, east of Khan Yunis, with mortar shells.
The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said that they shelled two Israeli vehicles and soldiers in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, with mortar shells. They also blew up a house where many Israeli soldiers were hiding in Khan Yunis, killing and injuring them.
The brigades also hit an Israeli Merkava tank with an “Al-Yassin 105” shell in the Khuza’a area, east of Khan Yunis.
Al-Qassam added that it targeted an Israeli force on foot inside a building in the Sheikh Ajlin area of Gaza City with an anti-fortified TPG shell. It also explained that its fighters sniped a soldier with a heavy-calibre M-99 weapon in Sheikh Ajlin. The Brigades said that they targeted 8 “Zionist” tanks with “Al-Yassin 105” shells in the Al-Tuffah and Al-Daraj neighbourhoods in Gaza City.
Moreover, the Israeli TV Channel 12 quoted the 13th Battalion of the Golani Brigade as acknowledging the killing of 41 of its soldiers in the operation launched by the Palestinian resistance on October 7, and the killing of 7 others in the Gaza battles, including the battalion commander.
On 21 December, Israel announced the withdrawal of the Golani Brigade – which is one of the elite brigades in the occupation army – from the Gaza Strip under the pretext of reorganizing its ranks.
