Israel continues ceasefire violations as Palestinians killed in Gaza and West Bank

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Israeli strikes in south Lebanon on Sunday killed one person and wounded another, the Lebanese health ministry said.

Israel has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah infrastructure or operatives, in violation of a November 2024 ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with the Iran-backed militant group that erupted over the Gaza war.

It has also kept troops in five south Lebanon areas that it deems strategic.

The health ministry in Beirut said "two Israeli enemy strikes today, on a vehicle and a motorbike in the town of Yater" killed one person and wounded another.

Yater is around five kilometres (three miles) from the border with Israel.

The Foreign Press Association has welcomed Sunday's decision by the Israeli Supreme Court to impose a final deadline on the government to respond to its petition demanding immediate media access to Gaza.

The court earlier today ordered the government to respond by 4 January, giving it a further two-week extensions. If it fails to respond by then, the court will make a decision.

"After two years of the state’s delay tactics, we are pleased that the court’s patience has finally run out," the FPA said in a statement.

"We renew our call for the State of Israel to immediately grant journalists free and unfettered access to the Gaza Strip. And should the government continue to obstruct press freedoms, we hope that the Supreme Court will recognize and uphold those freedoms."

The FPA in October submitted a petition seeking immediate access to the territory. The Israeli government has since delayed a decision and has sought three extensions from the court.

Israel has prevented journalists from independently entering Gaza since it began its genocidal assault on the strip on 7 October 2023.

An Israeli drone carried out two strikes on a town in southern Lebanon on Sunday afternoon, according to the country's state news agency.

The first strike targeted a car in the town of Yatar. A second hit the neighbourhood of Kassar in the same town a while later, the National News Agency said.

The Israeli military confirmed the attacks, saying it had targeted "Hezbollah terrorists".

A drone attack on a busy market in Sudan's North Darfur state killed 10 people over the weekend, first responders said, without saying who was responsible.

The attack comes as fighting intensified elsewhere in the country, leading aid workers to be evacuated on Sunday from Kadugli, a besieged, famine-hit city in the south.

Since April 2023, Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been locked in a conflict, which has killed tens of thousands of people, displaced nearly 12 million and created the world's largest displacement and hunger crisis.

The North Darfur Emergency Rooms Council, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating aid across Sudan, said a drone strike hit Al-Harra market in the RSF-controlled town of Malha on Saturday.

The council did not identify who carried out the attack, which it said had sparked "fire in shops and caused extensive material damage".

There was no immediate comment from either the Sudanese army or the RSF.

(AFP)

At least four people were killed when a building collapsed in Gaza City on Saturday evening, Palestinian authorities said.

The collapse occurred in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, prompting renewed warnings over the growing danger facing civilians sheltering in damaged structures.

Gaza authorities said 18 people have been killed in 46 building collapses across the Strip since the ceasefire took effect on 10 October, as reconstruction remains blocked.

"The Ministry of Interior and National Security warns of a worsening disaster amid the continued ban on reconstruction and the failure to allow in temporary housing," the ministry said, adding that winter conditions have further increased the risk of collapse.

Many displaced families, it said, have been forced to take refuge in structurally unsafe buildings, as tents "are no longer a solution and do not provide protection".

A rare video footage has emerged showing the killing of a Palestinian teenager by Israeli forces at close range.

The footage shows a 16-year-old boy walking towards what Palestinians say was his home before he is shot by Israeli soldiers from point-blank range.

The reporter said Israeli forces then prevented anyone from approaching the body for around 40 minutes, a practice frequently documented during raids in the occupied West Bank, where wounded Palestinians are left to bleed.

The family later told Al Jazeera they were unaware of what had happened.

The incident, the correspondent said, highlights the routine use of lethal force and the lack of accountability surrounding the killing of Palestinians by Israeli forces.

A Palestinian teenager was killed by Israeli forces during a raid in the northern occupied West Bank on Saturday, according to Palestinian officials.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said 16-year-old Rayyan Mohammad Abu Mualla was shot dead in Qabatiya, south of Jenin, after Israeli troops stormed the town and opened fire.

Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances were reportedly blocked from reaching the wounded child, leaving him bleeding for a period of time before he died. Israeli forces later withheld his body, the ministry said.

Earlier the same day, the ministry reported that 22-year-old Ahmad Zyoud from Silat al-Harithiya, west of Jenin, was killed after being shot in the chest during a separate Israeli raid.

President Emmanuel Macron arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday to discuss bilateral ties with the Gulf state as France hopes for more cooperation in its fight against drug trafficking.

Macron is due to meet with UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to discuss "strengthening the strategic partnership" between the two countries, according to the French presidency, which stressed their cooperation on security and defence.

The French president traditionally celebrates the end-of-year holidays with troops deployed abroad, of whom there are more than 900 in the UAE. Macron will speak to them later Sunday, before sharing a Christmas meal prepared by the Elysee's chefs.

France cooperates with the UAE on areas including artificial intelligence and trade, and now wants to secure the Gulf state's support in its war on drug trafficking.

Major traffickers are believed to have found refuge in the UAE, Dubai in particular, and some of them are thought to have built up substantial real estate portfolios there.

(AFP and TNA staff)

The Israeli Supreme Court has given the government a two-week extension to respond to a petition filed by the Foreign Press Association demanding journalists are allowed to access to Gaza.

Justice Ofer Grosskopf said 4 January will be the final deadline for the government to respond, and if it fails to do so it will issue a decision.

The FPA in October submitted a petition seeking immediate access to the territory. The Israeli government has since delayed a decision and has sought three extensions from the court.

Israel has prevented journalists from independently entering Gaza since it began its genocidal assault on the strip on 7 October 2023.

The World Health Organisation on Friday helped evacuate 25 critical medical patients from Gaza to multiple countries, including Belgium, Italy, Norway and Romania.

This brings the total number of patients evacuated abroad to more than 10,600 - including 5,600 children - since October 2023.

At least 16,000 patients needing urgent treatment remain inside Gaza.

Israel's security cabinet approved the establishment of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, a move the country's far-right finance minister said on Sunday was aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The decision brings the total number of settlements approved over the past three years to 69, according to a statement from the office of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

The latest approvals come days after the United Nations said the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank - all of which are considered illegal under international law - had reached its highest level since at least 2017.

(AFP)

The US, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey on Saturday called on Israel and Hamas to stick to the ceasefire agreement and show restraint following talks in Florida on Friday.

Senior officials from the three Arab and Muslim countries met with US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff in Miami to discuss entering the second phase of the Trump administration's peace plan.

"We reaffirm our full commitment to the entirety of the President’s 20-point peace plan and call on all parties to uphold their obligations, exercise restraint, and cooperate with monitoring arrangements," the countries said in a joint statement posted on X by Witkoff.

Israel has violated the ceasefire on almost a daily basis since it came into force on 10 October, killing more than 400 Palestinians and injuring 1,108 others, according to the local health ministry.

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa will lead a Sunday Mass ahead of Christmas at the Holy Family Parish Church in Gaza City on Sunday.

The cardinal has been in Gaza since Friday meeting the territory's Palestinian Christian community.

He has visited a number of sites in Gaza City including the Holy Family Parish church and Al-Azhar University.

Three Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza on Sunday, according to medical sources.

Two civilians were killed in drone fire near a fuel station in the Shujaiya neighbourhood of Gaza City, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA.

A third died when a drone dropped an explosive device in the same area, the agency said.

This came as an Al Jazeera correspondent reported renewed Israeli shelling and helicopter fire east of Khan Younis.