Israel kills three in Gaza amid calls for ceasefire's second phase to begin

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Israeli settlers, accompanied by Israeli forces, raided several homes in the town of Deir Istiya, northwest of Salfit, sources told Wafa.

The settlers and the army stormed the town and raided three Palestinian homes, olive groves and livestock pens, conducting searches and climbing onto roofs under the guise of searching for missing cows.

Heavy rainfall over the past few hours has flooded a tent in al-Mawasi in Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip, as Storm Byron brought flash floods, strong winds and hail throughout the occupied territories, Al Jazeera reports.

Many tents have been completely submerged, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians at risk.

Israeli forces detained 43 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as the army continues to carry out their mass detention campaigns in the occupied territory, Wafa reports:

- 17 Palestinians were detained in Nablus in the Nablus refugee camp, the Old City and Balata al-Balad, while also conducting field interrogations.

- 13 were detained from the city and Aqbat Jabr refugee camp in Jenin after Israeli forces raided and searched their homes and converted many into military outposts.

- Seven more were detained in Hebron in Beit Ummar after forces also raised and searched their homes.

- Two Palestinians, who were previously released from Israeli prison, were detained in Jenin, including two men from Qalqilya, and Palestinians from Tulkarm and south of Bethlehem.

- Dozens of Palestinians were detained in Salfit as Israeli forces beat them and interrogated them on site.

- While raiding East Jerusalem, almost 20 Palestinians were detained, assaulted and interrogated before being released afterwards. 

Israeli attacks have killed 379 Palestinians since the US-brokered ceasefire came into effect on 10 October, despite one of the clauses being a cessation of hostilities.

A further 992 Palestinians have been wounded.

A top Hamas leader told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that the Palestinian group is open to a weapons "freeze", but rejects the demand for disarmament put forward in the US-sponsored peace plan for Gaza.

"The idea of total disarmament is unacceptable to the resistance (Hamas). What is being proposed is a freeze, or storage (of weapons)... to provide guarantees against any military escalation from Gaza with the Israeli occupation," said Khaled Meshaal in an interview aired Wednesday.

"This is the idea we're discussing with the mediators, and I believe that with pragmatic American thinking... such a vision could be agreed upon with the US administration," he said.

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that an announcement about which world leaders will serve on the Gaza Board of Peace should be made early next year.

Trump told reporters during an economic event in the White House Roosevelt Room that a variety of leaders want to be on the board, which was established under a Gaza plan that set up a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Israel's war on Gaza has now killed at least 70,369 Palestinians since October 2023, not including the thousands missing or trapped under the rubble presumed dead, with a further 171,069 injured, the Gaza Health Ministry revealed.

Gaza hospitals received three bodies over the past 24 hours,  including one body that was recovered, along with five injuries.

President Mahmoud Abbas met with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in Spain.

During a joint press conference, Abbas thanked Spain for recognising the State of Palestine in May 2024 and praised Madrid's leadership in building an international coalition to expand recognition.

He also called for an end to violence in Gaza and the West Bank.

Israel reopened the only crossing on the border it controls between Jordan and the occupied West Bank on Wednesday to aid trucks for Gaza after nearly three months of closure, Israeli and Palestinian officials told AFP.

Israel closed the crossing after a Jordanian truck driver shot dead an Israeli soldier and a reserve officer at the border in September.

The crossing in the Jordan Valley reopened to travellers a few days later, but not to humanitarian aid destined for the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by more than two years of war.

"The Allenby crossing (King Hussein Crossing) was open today and trucks are going from the Allenby crossing to Gaza," said a spokesperson for COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body that oversees civilian affairs in the Palestinian Territories.

A Palestinian official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed that the crossing had been opened.

Israeli forces opened fire in northern Gaza, killing three Palestinians, including a woman and a child, Wafa reports.

The three victims were transferred to Al-Baptist Hospital in Gaza City.

Spain's PM on Thursday called on the international community to "raise its voice" to prevent the plight of Palestinians from being forgotten, during a meeting with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmud Abbas.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also repeated Madrid's support for a two-state solution, describing it as "the only possible solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

He stressed that the recent ceasefire in the war on Gaza must be real and not "fictitious", and insisted that attacks on civilians must end.

"The year 2025 has been terrible for the Palestinian people," the Socialist prime minister said as he stood alongside Abbas in Madrid.

"Genuine peace must be based on justice. Those responsible for this genocide will be held accountable, sooner or later."

The Israeli army shot a Palestinian teenager and then crushed them with a tank in central Gaza, Wafa reports.

Zaher Nasser Shamiya, 16, was shot by the Israeli army, and then they ran him over with a tank that split his body in half.

The King Hussein (Allenby) Bridge connecting the occupied West Bank and Jordan has reopened to aid for Gaza, according to Al Jazeera.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said Wednesday that Israeli forces fired on its peacekeepers a day earlier in the country's south near the de facto border with Israel, reporting no injuries.

"Yesterday, peacekeepers in vehicles patrolling the Blue Line were fired upon by [Israeli army] soldiers in a Merkava tank near Sarda," a UNIFIL statement said.

"Peacekeepers asked the [Israeli army] to stop firing through UNIFIL's liaison channels... Fortunately, no one was injured."

Iceland will not take part in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, the country's public broadcaster RUV said on Wednesday, after organiser the European Broadcasting Union last week cleared Israel's participation.

The decision to allow Israel to take part in the next Eurovision, which will be held in Vienna in May, earlier prompted Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Slovenia to withdraw in protest, citing Israel's conduct in the Gaza war.

"It is clear from the public debate in this country and the reaction to the EBU's decision last week that there will be neither joy nor peace regarding RUV's participation," the broadcaster's Director General Stefan Eiriksson said in a statement.

The Presidency of the Palestinian Authority has condemned Israel's decision to expand three Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

According to Palestinian news outlet Wafa, Presidential spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh said the decision was in violation of international law.

"We call on the administration of US President Donald Trump to exert pressure on the occupation authorities to reverse their settlement policies, attempts at annexation and expansion, and the theft of Palestinian land, and to compel them to abide by international legitimacy and international law," Rudeineh was quoted as saying.

Aid deliveries into Gaza are falling far short of the amount called for under the US-brokered ceasefire, an Associated Press analysis of the Israeli military's figures showed.

Under the October ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, Israel agreed to allow 600 trucks of aid into Gaza each day. But an average of around 459 trucks a day have entered Gaza between 12 October, when flow of the aid restarted, and 7 December, according to an AP analysis of latest figures by COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of coordinating aid entry.

COGAT said that roughly 18,000 trucks of food aid had entered Gaza between the ceasefire taking effect and Sunday. It said that figure amounted to 70 percent of all aid that had entered the territory since the truce.

That means COGAT estimates that a total of just over 25,700 trucks of aid have entered Gaza - well under the 33,600 trucks that should have entered by Sunday, under the terms of the ceasefire.

In response to the AP analysis, COGAT insisted Wednesday that the number of trucks entering Gaza each day was above the 600 mark. But when asked, it refused to elaborate why the figures it gave did not reach that amount or provide raw data on truck entry.

Hamas has condemned a decision by Israel's government to allow for the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

In a statement, the group said that "this colonial decision, and the decisions that preceded it, constitute a dangerous escalation," according to Al Jazeera. 

"It confirms the occupation's continued policy of creeping annexation and the seizure of Palestinian lands, serving its project based on forced displacement and the uprooting of the indigenous population," the statement continued.

Three Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire in Jabalia al-Balad in the northern Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa, which said that a woman and child were among the victims.

Gaza's health ministry has said the death toll from Israel's war on the enclave stands at 70,369 Palestinians killed, with a further 171,069 wounded. 

The toll includes two Palestinians who were killed in the last 24 hours, one whose body was recovered, and five who were injured. 

President Donald Trump's administration wants the International Criminal Court to amend its founding document to ensure it does not investigate the Republican president and his top officials, Reuters news agency reported-citing a Trump administration official- threatening new US sanctions on the court if it did not.

If the court does not act on this US demand and two others - dropping investigations of Israeli leaders over the Gaza war and formally ending an earlier probe of US troops over their actions in Afghanistan - Washington may penalize more ICC officials and could sanction the court itself, the official said.

Sanctioning the court would significantly escalate the U.S. campaign against the ICC, which has long been criticized by US officials including both Republicans and Democrats, who say the court infringes on US sovereignty.

The Trump administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Washington has communicated its demands to ICC members, some of whom are US allies, and has also made them known to the court.

The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute that established the ICC in 2002 as a court of last resort, with the power to prosecute heads of state.

The demand and the threat to resume the US sanctions campaign towards the court have not been previously reported.

(Reuters)

Israeli Druze leader Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif urged the United States to guarantee the security of the Druze community in Syria to prevent a recurrence of intense violence earlier this year in Suweida, a Druze-majority province in Sunni-dominated Syria.

Washington needed to fulfill its "duty" to safeguard the rights of Syria's minorities in order to encourage stability, Tarif told Reuters news agency on Tuesday during an official visit to the U.N. in Geneva, adding that U.S. support would also remove the need for Israeli intervention in Syria's south.

"We hope that the United States, President Trump, and America as a great power, we want it to guarantee the rights of all minorities in Syria ... preventing any further massacres," he said.

US President Donald Trump vowed in November to do everything he can to make Syria successful after landmark talks with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

(Reuters)

Around 190 Israeli settlers stormed the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, according to Al Jazeera, citing Wafa, which added that the settlers performed Talmudic rituals on the site.

Israel has given final approval for 764 housing units to be built in three settlements in the occupied West Bank, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Wednesday.

The ultra-nationalist Smotrich, who opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, said that since the beginning of his term in late 2022, some 51,370 housing units have been approved by the government's Higher Planning Council in the West Bank, territory Palestinians seek for a future state.

"We continue the revolution," Smotrich said in a statement, adding the latest approval of housing units "is part of a clear strategic process of strengthening the settlements and ensuring continuity of life, security, and growth ... and genuine concern for the future of the State of Israel."

The units will be spread out between Hashmonaim, just over the Green Line in central Israel, and Givat Zeev and Beitar Illit near Jerusalem.

The Norwegian Refugee Council has slammed Israel's restrictions on the entry of tents into the Gaza Strip, saying in a post on X that the UN and aid agencies "have only been able to bring in 15,600 tents for 88,000 people, while 1.29 billion still need shelter to survive the winter."

Speaking about storm Byron, which is set to batter the coastal enclave, the NRC said that previous storms "flooded displacement sites, contaminating living areas with sewage and solid waste." The agency estimates that 850,000 people are at risk of flooding.

"International aid organisations remain blocked from bringing in relief and nearly 4,000 pallets of shelter materials have been rejected," it said, adding "Gaza urgently needs heavy machinery, tools and shelter items to prevent catastrophic flooding."

Byron, a severe winter storm is forecast. Past storms (pictured) flooded displacement sites, contaminating living areas with sewage and solid waste.

At least 761 displacement sites hosting around 850,000 people are at risk of flooding. pic.twitter.com/vgl6aqxCpy

— Norwegian Refugee Council (@NRC_Norway) December 10, 2025

Lebanon's foreign minister Youssef Raji said on Wednesday he had declined an invitation to visit Tehran for now, proposing instead talks with Iran in a mutually agreed neutral third country, Lebanese state news agency NNA reported.

Raji cited "current conditions" for the decision not to go to Iran, without specifying further, and stressed that the move does not mean rejection of dialogue with Iran. Last week, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi invited Raji to visit Iran in the near future to discuss bilateral ties.

The body of the last Thai national held captive in Gaza since the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel was returned home on Wednesday, Thailand's foreign ministry said.

The remains of Sudthisak Rinthalak arrived at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport from Tel Aviv, ministry official Jeerasak Pomsuwan told AFP, more than two years after the attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Bolivia's new right-wing government said Tuesday that it would restore diplomatic relations with Israel, the latest sign of the dramatic geopolitical realignment underway in the South American country that was once among the most vocal critics of Israeli policies toward Palestinians.

The Bolivian foreign ministry said its top diplomat would meet his Israeli counterpart in Washington later Tuesday to discuss the revival of bilateral ties, which Bolivia's previous left-wing government severed two years ago over Israel's devastating campaign against Hamas in Gaza.

Bolivia said the effort came as part of a new foreign policy strategy under conservative President Rodrigo Paz aimed at "rebuilding Bolivia's international prestige, opening new economic opportunities and strengthening alliances that directly benefit the country and our citizens abroad."

The UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), announced on Tuesday that it plans to host Palestinian and Israeli civil society leaders on 12 March as part of a peacebuilding conference at London's Lancaster House that seeks to "help establish an International Peace Fund for Israel and Palestine." 

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said that the conference will bring "representatives of Palestinian and Israeli civil society to build common ground between their communities, challenge entrenched divisions, and work towards a future where both states can live side-by-side in peace and security."

Cooper cited the UK's work on peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland as an example of why the UK is "well placed to host and facilitate these talks." 

A Palestinian man has died in Israeli prison, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa, citing the Palestinian Authority. 

Abdul Rahman Sufian Muhammad al-Sabateen, 21, had been held by the Israeli authorities since 24 June.