In an Israeli attack in the south of the Gaza Strip, in an area that the Israeli army declared a safe zone, 12 people, mostly children, were killed, according to sources close to the Palestinian hospital.
A house was hit in Muvasi, a small rural area in the south of Gaza along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
The Israeli army said Palestinians could take refuge there from the conflict zone.
One man and his wife, seven of their children and three other children, aged five to 14, died in the explosion, according to the list of the dead whose bodies were taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis.
The army did not comment on the attack.
The focus of the Israeli offensive is now Khan Yunis, where the army, as announced today, found tunnels used by the Palestinian movement Hamas.
Israel has pledged that the war against Hamas will continue until the Islamic extremist organization is destroyed.
The killing of a senior Hamas official in Beirut on Tuesday in an attack attributed to Israel has fueled fears that the conflict will spread to other parts of the region.
After almost three months of war, the Israeli bombing and ground offensive killed more than 22.400 people in Gaza, two-thirds of whom were women and children, according to the Ministry of Health there.
Israeli soldiers moved to Khan Yunis at the beginning of December and have been fighting Palestinian extremists there for weeks now.
As announced today, a large tunnel hundreds of meters long was found with an entrance near the mosque.
A video released by the military shows buildings from which Hamas fighters allegedly fired at soldiers or the organization's infrastructure were turned into rubble.
Israel blames Hamas for the large number of civilian casualties, claiming that the extremists operate in residential areas and have a large network of tunnels under civilian buildings.
That country, it seems, is still far from achieving its goal of destroying Hamas and returning the 129 hostages still held in Gaza.
(BETA)
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said today that Israelis evacuated from the north of the country must be allowed to return to that territory.
He alluded to the almost daily exchange of fire across the blue line separating Israel and Lebanon.
"We will not tolerate the threat posed by Iran's proxy Hezbollah and we will ensure the safety of our citizens," the minister said, Israeli media reported.
For security reasons, Israel evacuated residents from many settlements in the north after the surprise attacks of Hamas on the south of Israel on October 7, after which the exchange of fire with Hezbollah began.
Minister Galant met today in Tel Aviv with the US special envoy for the Middle East, Amos Hochstein, and told him that there is only a short time to reach a "diplomatic understanding" with the extremist Hezbollah.
"There is only one possible result, a new reality in the northern arena, which will enable the safe return of our citizens," said Galant.
He said that about 80.000 Israelis were displaced from the north, and that Israel is determined to enable their return by changing the security reality in the north of the country, on the border with Lebanon.
(BETA)
The Hamas Health Ministry announced today that 22.438 people have been killed and 57.614 wounded in Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war on October 7.
As stated, 24 people died in the last 125 hours alone, France Press reported. Two thirds of the dead are children and women, according to the Associated Press (AP).
In the attacks of Hamas on the south of Israel, which initiated the war in Gaza, 1.200 people, mostly civilians, were killed, most of them on the first day of the war.
About 240 hostages were kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip that day, 129 of whom are still being held, according to Israeli authorities.
So far, 175 Israeli soldiers have been killed in ground operations in the Gaza Strip.
(BETA)
Israeli artists and other celebrities have signed a statement released by human rights organization Amnesty International Israel (AII) expressing opposition to "the dehumanization of Gazans, Palestinians and Muslims and the dehumanization of Israelis and Jews in general."
The letter was signed, among many others, by singer Ahinoam Nini, writer David Grossman and director Nadav Lapid, the Times of Israel reports today.
The letter criticizes the "disturbing trend" in the West of "dehumanization of Israelis and sometimes all Jews" and assesses that this serves to "rationalize their killing or violation of their rights", as well as places where "the dehumanization of Palestinians in general and the residents of Gaza in particular is common, mostly expressed in associating everyone with Hamas".
"That association is used to rationalize random killing and the denial of humanitarian aid," the AII statement concluded.
(BETA)
A Gaza Health Ministry official told Reuters that 14 Palestinians, including nine children, were killed in Israeli strikes on El Mawasi, west of Khan Younis in Gaza.
The White House has criticized as "baseless" a complaint filed by South Africa at the International Court of Justice against Israel, alleging that the country committed "genocide" in the Gaza Strip.
"This request is baseless, counterproductive and not based on facts," said White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
On December 29, the Republic of South Africa filed a case against Israel before the International Court of Justice, the highest judicial body of the United Nations, for what it said was genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and asked the institution to order the country to stop its attacks.
South Africa's submission claims that Israel's "actions and inactions... are genocidal in nature", as they were undertaken with the intention of "destroying the Palestinians in Gaza as part of the wider Palestinian national, racial and ethnic group".
The International Court of Justice, based in The Hague, Netherlands, is being asked to issue an interim measure ordering Israel to halt its military operations in Gaza.
South Africa can initiate this procedure on the basis of the Genocide Convention because both Israel and South Africa are signatories to that convention.
(BETA)
The German Foreign Ministry has warned its citizens not to travel to Lebanon and to leave the country quickly.
As the Ministry announced on its website, a further deterioration of the situation and the spread of the conflict cannot be ruled out, especially considering the killing of one of the leaders of Hamas, Saleh al-Aruri, in the Beirut area.
The ministry notes that the warning specifically applies to the southern parts of Lebanon, including the southern urban areas of Beirut, reports Reuters.
The United States of America has not observed acts that would constitute genocide in Gaza, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said regarding South Africa's request to the International Court of Justice to declare Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip genocide.
"These are not allegations that should be made lightly. We do not see any acts that amount to genocide," Miller said, as reported by Reuters.
A State Department spokesman also said he was not in a position to assess whether war crimes or crimes against humanity had been committed in the Palestinian enclave.
South Africa's submission to the International Court of Justice states that Israel has violated the 1948 Genocide Convention, which was drawn up after the Holocaust, and refers to the attempt to destroy a people in whole or in part.
Conflict between Israel and Hamas - 89th day.
Members of the United Nations Security Council have called on Yemen's Houthis to stop attacks on ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, warning that the attacks threaten regional stability, global freedom of navigation and food supplies.
Members of the UN Security Council, during the Council's first official meeting in 2024, demanded that the Houthis release the "Galaxy Leader" and its crew, a Japanese cargo ship linked to an Israeli company that was seized on November 19.
US UN representative Chris Lu said Washington believes the situation has reached a "tipping point", reports Reuters.
"These attacks have serious implications for maritime security, international shipping and trade, and undermine the fragile humanitarian situation in Yemen," Lu said, adding that the attacks threaten to jeopardize aid deliveries.
Japan's ambassador to the UN, Kazuyuki Yamazaki, said the UN Security Council should not allow the attacks to continue.
Bonus video:
