Gaza: Israeli aid restrictions worsen conditions, as storm batters enclave

Israeli forces detained three Palestinians on Sunday from the northern Jordan Valley, Palestinian media said, following an incident involving Israeli settlers.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem on Sunday said moves to disarm the group in Lebanon are an "Israeli-American plan", accusing Israel of failing to abide by a ceasefire agreement sealed last year.

Under heavy US pressure and fears of expanded Israeli strikes, the Lebanese military is expected to complete Hezbollah's disarmament south of the Litani River -- located about 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the border with Israel -- by the end of the year.

It will then tackle disarming the Iran-backed movement in the rest of the country.

"Disarmament is an Israeli-American plan," Qassem said.

"To demand exclusive arms control while Israel is committing aggression and America is imposing its will on Lebanon, stripping it of its power, means that you are not working in Lebanon's interest, but rather in the interest of what Israel wants."

Residents of the Gaza Strip are in need of at least 200,000 pre-fabricated housing units to meet their needs as stormy weather batters the enclave. 

The weekend's stormy weather has flooded and destroyed hundreds of tents housing the displaced across the Strip, which is being subjected to its third storm this winter.

Three more Iranian satellites were sent into space on Russia's Soyuz launchers on Sunday, Iranian state media said, as the two US-sanctioned nations extend their space collaboration.

Iran has increasingly relied on its ally Russia to put satellites in orbit in recent years, with the latest three intended to help with monitoring agriculture, natural resources and the environment.

"These satellites were designed and produced by Iranian scientists ... despite all the sanctions and threats," Iran's ambassador to Russia Kazem Jalali told state TV in reference to Western measures over Tehran's nuclear programme.

"We are working together (with Russia) in different areas. Some are evident and some we don't like to clarify." Iran's official IRNA news agency said the three satellites - Paya, Zafar 2,and a second Kowsar - were for low-earth orbit.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Iran and Russia have deepened ties, with Western countries accusing Iran of providing missiles and drones for Russian attacks.

Tehran denies that.

Israeli forces have reportedly withdrawn from the West Bank of Qabatiya after carrying out a two-day raid there, Palestinian media said on Sunday.

The Israeli incursion into Qabatiya left substantial damage in the city and isolated from neighbouring towns and villages due to an imposed curfew.

Aroubd 50 homes were raided in the process, with six converted into military outposts. Fifty Palestinians were also detained, with most of them released.

Israel's recognition of the breakaway region of Somaliland "is (a) threat to the security and stability of the world and the region," Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud told an emergency parliamentary session Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Friday announcement, making his country the first to recognise Somaliland, "is tantamount to a blunt aggression against the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and the unity of the people of the Somali Republic," Mohamud said.

Syrian security forces have reportedly killed two after firing gunshots to disperse crowds in Latakia protesting the Homs Alawite mosque bombing, a monitor said.

Syrian authorities did not confirm they had opened fire, but said they had "contained the situation" and accused what they called "remnants" of former ruler Bashar al-Assad's government of attacking security forces.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was greeted angrily during a "visit" to the Bedouin town of Tirabin al-Sana in the southern Negev (Naqab) desert.

Prior to this, Israeli forces were seen firing tear gas at local Bedouin residents. Police also reportedly arrested several Palestinians, local media said.

The village has reportedly witnessed a series of violent incidents, including Israeli raids on local residents.

עימותים בתארבין, אבנים נזרקים לעבר כוחות המשטרה שיורה גז מדמיע לעבר הצעירים. השר לביטחון לאומי איתמר בן גביר טרם הגיע... pic.twitter.com/TGMnOtreIh

— ilana curiel (@ilanacuriel) December 28, 2025

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has left Israel and is headed towards the US, where he is set to meet with US President Donald Trump on Monday, his office said on Sunday.

The visit to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, is expected to focus on phase two of the fragile Gaza ceasefire, as well as other regional topics, such as Iran.

Netanyahu is reportedly not flying with journalists and did not make any public statement before getting on the plane, the Times of Israel said.

The Syrian Ministry of Defence said it arrested five people in the Tartus countryside in western Syria, after they were caught "attempting to enter Syrian territory illegally," as quoted by the official Syrian news agency, SANA.

It added that "initial investigations with those arrested revealed that some of them were members of the former Assad regime, and they will be transferred to the relevant authorities to complete the necessary investigations and procedures".

Israeli forces and settlers wreaked havoc in the occupied West Bank on Saturday and Sunday, targeting several Palestinian communities and their properties in the territory.

In the village of Al-Jaba'a, west of Bethlehem, settlers set ablaze a vehicle belonging to Rizq Mohammad Abu Lahwa, and sprayed racist graffiti on buildings in the village.

In Turmus Ayya, north of Ramallah, settlers on Sunday took to stealing main doors from several Palestinian homes under construction, according to local sources, cited by the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

The sources reported that settler groups broke into the town and targeted the property of residents, removing doors from homes under construction and causing significant material damage.

Meanwhile, in Mekhmas, north of occupied Jerusalem, settlers cut down around 40 olive trees overnight amid an uptick in attacks on olive groves and Palestinian farmland, witnessed since October.

In Deir Dibwan, east of Ramallah, soldiers broke the windows of several Palestinian vehicles early on Sunday.

Witnesses said that the soldiers attacked vehicles parked along the main street of the town, shattering the glass and windshields of six cars.

The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said on Saturday that Israel has killed 706 Palestinians who are relatives of journalists in the Gaza Strip since the start of its war on the enclave in October 2023.

In a report issued by the Syndicate's Freedoms Committee, it added that the Israeli army's targeting of Palestinian journalists has not been limited to direct killing, injury, arrest, or preventing them from covering events.

The syndicate went on to say that the Israeli military also targeted journalists' families and relatives, "in a clear attempt to transform journalistic work into an existential burden paid for by children, wives, fathers, and mothers".

It explained that targeting journalists' families "has become a systematic and recurring pattern during the years 2023, 2024, and 2025, claiming the lives of approximately 706 family members of journalists in the Gaza Strip".

"All indicators prove that these attacks are not accidental incidents resulting from the circumstances of war."

A Palestinian worker succumbed to his injuries on Sunday after falling from the separation wall in the town of Al-Ram, north of occupied Jerusalem.

Jihad Hassan Omar Qazmar, 58,  was injured while attempting to reach his workplace inside Israel, and was transferred to the hospital overnight. He was later pronounced dead.

Palestinians are often forced to make their way over the wall due to Israeli checkpoints blocking their access to certain cities. Without crossing into Israel, many Palestinians would not be able to secure a livelihood, nor access vital services such as education and medical care, or visit family members. 

The separation wall, known locally as the "apartheid wall," cuts deep into the West Bank and has for decades isolated communities and separated Palestinians from their land.

Qazmar was from the village of Izbat Salman south of Qalqilya, in the West Bank.