Gazans struggles to retrieve bodies from rubble as storms flood damaged buildings

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Israeli forces shot and injured a young man on Monday night in the town of al-Ram, north of occupied Jerusalem.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said the man was shot with live ammunition in the knee near the separation wall in al-Ram and was subsequently transferred to hospital.

US President Donald Trump on Monday said the International Stabilization Force for Gaza is already running and that more countries would be added.

"I think that, in a form, it's already running," Trump said in the Oval Office. "More and more countries are coming into it. They're already in but they'll send any number of troops that I ask them to send." 

US President Donald Trump on Monday said his administration was looking into whether Israel violated the Gaza ceasefire by killing a Hamas leader on Saturday.

A house collapsed on Monday evening in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City due to intense rainfall and structural damage sustained during Israel's military campaign in the Gaza Strip.

The building, which belongs to the Abu Al-Qumsan family, collapsed amid the severe weather conditions. No injuries were reported, though.

Israeli settlers torched several olive trees late on Monday in Burqa village, east of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, according to local media.

Sources said the settlers descended upon al-Hadab area in Western Burqa, and set several olive trees on fire.

They added that although it was raining, the olive trees caught fire, indicating that the arsonists used highly inflammable materials and the fire could have reached nearby houses.

Israeli forces detained a Palestinian who was assaulted by Israeli settlers in Masafer Yatta, south of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.

Israeli settlers, under protection by Israeli forces, broke into al-Rakiz hamlet, attacked Saeed al-Amur, and vandalised his home along with a nearby fence.

The forces then detained the Palestinian, transferred him to Susiya military camp and held him for hours before being released.

Al-Amur was rushed to the Yatta Government Hospital for treatment.

Western and Arab diplomats toured an area along Lebanon’s border with Israel on Monday, where Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers have been working for months to end the armed presence of the Hezbollah group.

The delegation, which included the ambassadors of the United States and Saudi Arabia, was accompanied by Gen. Rodolph Haikal, commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces, as well as top officers in the border region.

The Lebanese government has said that by the end of the year, the army should have cleared all the border area south of the Litani River of Hezbollah’s armed presence.

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian teenager in Tuqu' town, southeast of the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem.

Ammar Yaser Sabbah, 17, succumbed to his injuries after being shot in the chest while Israeli forces raided the town and opened fire.

Gaza has begun the painful task of recovering the bodies of Palestinians buried beneath the rubble of homes destroyed by Israeli bombardment. 

Civil defence teams, working with minimal equipment, are digging through unstable ruins left behind by Israel’s genocidal war, starting with houses bombed while families were still inside. 

For many, this is the first chance in more than a year to locate loved ones and bury them with dignity. 

The operation exposes not only the scale of destruction but also the continued obstruction of humanitarian efforts to account for the dead.

Appeals judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday rejected one in a series of legal challenges brought by Israel against the court's probe into its conduct of the Gaza war.

On appeal, judges refused to overturn a lower court decision that the prosecution's investigation into alleged crimes under its jurisdiction could include events following war on Gaza.

The ruling means the investigation continues, and the arrest warrants issued last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief Yoav Gallant remain in place.

A Palestinian child was injured after Israeli forces opened fire while returning from school in the al-Mawasi area of the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip. The child was taken to the hospital.

Authorities in Gaza warned on Monday that more war-damaged buildings may collapse because of heavy rain in the devastated Palestinian enclave and said the weather was making it hard to recover bodies still under the rubble.

Two buildings collapsed in Gaza on Friday, killing at least 12 people according to local health authorities, amid a storm that has also washed away and flooded tents, and led to deaths from exposure.

Gaza Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Basal called on the international community to provide mobile homes and caravans for displaced Palestinians rather than tents.

"If people are not protected today we will witness more victims, more killing of people, children, women, entire families inside these buildings," he said.

Israeli aircraft have launched a series of airstrikes on Gaza's southern city of Rafah, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa, adding that gunfire was also heard from Israeli vehicles north of the city. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met with US Ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack during the latter's visit to Jerusalem. 

Alongside the two are other Israeli and US officials, including Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar and US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. 

Israeli attacks have killed at least 393 Palestinians and injured a further 1,068 since 10 October, despite a ceasefire being in effect, with one key term being a cessation of all hostilities.

The Israeli army is to demolish 25 residential buildings in the north West Bank's Nur Shams refugee camp later this week, local authorities told AFP on Monday.

Abdallah Kamil, governor of the Tulkarem governorate where Nur Shams is located, told AFP he was informed of the planned demolition by the Israeli defence ministry body COGAT.

COGAT, which is in charge of coordinating civilian affairs in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, did not respond to AFP's requests for comment.

Faisal Salama, head of the popular committee for Tulkarem camp, which is near Nur Shams, said the demolition order would affect 25 buildings holding up to 100 family homes.

"We were informed by the military and civil coordination that the occupation will carry out the demolition of 25 buildings on December 18, Thursday," he told AFP.

Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was "looking into it".

Since the start of Israel's genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, 70,665 Palestinians have been killed, including a further 171,145 being injured, the Gaza Health Ministry revealed. The toll does not include the thousands missing or trapped under the rubble presumed dead.

Two Palestinians were killed, and six were wounded over the past 24 hours.

Gaza's Civil Defence teams recovered 20 bodies that were buried beneath the rubble in the Al-Remal neighbourhood of Gaza City.

The team said they recovered the bodies beneath the rubble of the Salem family home, with all victims killed by an Israeli airstrike.

Israel's continuing bombardment and restrictions have made it increasingly difficult for the Civil Defence to retrieve victims from under the rubble, having lost the majority of their capability due to relentless Israeli attacks.

Thousands of Palestinians still remain under the rubble in the enclave.

Israeli forces detained two activists from the US while opposing the forced displacement of a Palestinian family in the occupied West Bank.

Irene Cho, from New York, and Trudi Frost, from Boston, who were volunteering with the ISM, were detained in al-Mughayyer, northeast of Ramallah, while staying with the Abu Hamam family.

Israeli forces revoked their stay permits and transferred them to Givon prison.

Gaza's essential medical supplies are still in critical shortage as Israel prevents essential, life-saving aid from entering the enclave, the Palestinian Ministry of Health Revealed.

The ministry said 52 percent of essential medicines, 71 percent of medical consumables, and 70 percent of laboratory supplies currently are currently out of stock.

US envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner on Monday briefed EU foreign ministers on Trump's Gaza peace plan via video conference, an EU official said.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said earlier on Monday that he had suggested to EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas that Kushner and Witkoff provide an update on the implementation of the plan to the foreign ministers during their meeting in Brussels.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Monday he had suggested to European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas that U.S. representatives would brief EU foreign ministers on President Donald Trump's Gaza peace plan.

"I suggested to the High Representative that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the US President's envoys, could address the European Union's foreign ministers today to provide an update on the implementation of President Trump's peace plan," Barrot said.

Hamas has vowed to respond to the killing of its senior commander Raed Saad "Abu Muath" in an Israeli air strike in Gaza.

In a Telegram statement late on Sunday, the group's military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said that its right to respond to the killing of Saad "is reserved" and that it has the right to defend itself "by all means".

The Qassam Brigades announced the appointment of a new commander to replace Saad, affirming that "the path of our jihad will not stop".

The Brigades further said that Israel had "crossed all the red lines", urging US President Donald Trump and mediators to "take responsibility for these dangerous violations".

On 13 December, Israel announced the "elimination" of Saad, saying he was responsible for manufacturing weapons for Hamas.

Israeli settlers stormed the Islamic religious sites in Awarta, southeast of Nablus, performing rituals while forcing shop owners to close their businesses.

The settlers also entered the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah as a way of asserting their control over the holy site.

Israeli forces launched airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, including the eastern areas of Gaza City, and in Khan Younis, south of the enclave.

The Israeli army has repeatedly been launching attacks into Gaza, despite the 10 October ceasefire coming into effect, with one of its terms being a cessation of all hostilities.

The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned Sunday's shooting at Sydney's Bondi Beach that killed 11 people, saying it rejected all forms of violence and terrorism.

The ministry said it "reiterates its firm rejection of all forms of violence, terrorism and extremism, which contradict humanitarian values", expressing in a statement its "full solidarity" with "friendly Australia".

Australia recognised a Palestinian state in September alongside Britain and Canada in a historic shift in decades of Western foreign policy.