Among them was a 10-year-old boy, Abdullah Abu Yousef, suffering from kidney failure. He was accompanied by his sister after the Israeli authorities rejected his mother’s application to join him. Israel says it screens escorts for security.
“The boy is sick,” said his mother, Abeer Abu Yousef. “He requires hemodialysis three to four days a week.”
The Health Ministry says several thousand Palestinians in Gaza need medical treatment abroad. Israel has controlled all entry and exit points since capturing the southern city of Rafah in May. Israel's offensive, launched after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack has gutted the territory's health care system and forced most of its hospitals to close. Those that remain open are only partially functioning.
Here’s the latest:
Head of UN agency aiding Palestinians says at least 745 have been killed in its shelters
UNITED NATIONS — The head of the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees says that since the war in Gaza began at least 745 people were killed and more than 2,200 injured in its shelters where they had sought United Nations protection.
Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on X on Tuesday that nearly 650 incidents were recorded against buildings and facilities belonging to the agency, known as UNRWA, and over two-thirds of its buildings and schools have been damaged or destroyed.
Since Israel began its retaliation for the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel, 258 UNRWA staff members have been killed and at least 20 are in Israeli detention centers, Lazzarini said.
He said the agency continues to receive reports that Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups have used UNRWA facilities, and it has verified the occupation of its premises by Israeli Defense Forces on several occasions.
UNRWA provides essential services to millions of Palestinians across the Middle East and has underpinned aid efforts in Gaza throughout the Israel-Hamas war.
Israel has accused UNRWA of being infiltrated by Hamas supporters and it passed legislation on Oct. 28 — which takes effect in 90 days — banning the U.N. agency from operating in the country. UNRWA denies the allegations, saying it is committed to neutrality and acts quickly to address any wrongdoing by its staff.
The UNRWA commissioner-general reiterated his call for independent investigations “into the systematic disregard for the protection of humanitarian workers, premises and operations” in Gaza.
“This cannot become the new standard, and impunity cannot become the new norm,” he stressed.
Lazzarini said the rules of war are clear: Humanitarian workers and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and U.N. buildings, can’t be targeted; civilians must be protected; and hostage-taking is prohibited.
World Central Kitchen complies with Israeli security checks of its employees
NICOSIA, Cyprus — World Central Kitchen said an Israeli security check of its employees in Gaza has prompted the charity to make changes so that it can continue feeding people in the Palestinian territory.
The charity said it "felt this step was necessary to protect our team and operations" following a Nov. 30 Israeli airstrike on a car in Gaza that killed five people, including a WCK worker. Israeli authorities said the WCK worker took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the Israel-Hamas war.
After the airstrike, Israel publicly demanded an investigation into WCK’s hiring practices in Gaza, including security checks through COGAT, the Israeli department in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
WCK said it made “changes in Gaza” after Israeli authorities handed over the results of their security check. WCK didn’t explicitly say if it has terminated any employee who Israeli authorities had flagged.
The charity said that prior to receiving the COGAT results, “we had no reason for concern regarding any of these individuals and, because Israel does not share intelligence with aid organizations, we do not know the basis for Israel’s decision to flag these individuals.”
Days after surgery, Netanyahu rushes to the Knesset for a budget vote
TEL AVIV, Israel — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rushed to Israel's parliament Tuesday for an emergency vote on a portion of the budget less than two days after his prostate surgery, after parts of his coalition refused to support the measure.
Israeli media reported that Netanyahu took his seat in the Knesset despite doctors’ objections in an effort to pass the budget measure.
The coalition was able to achieve a majority in a last-ditch attempt. The vote was critical because Tuesday is the last day of the 2024 tax year, and if the vote had not passed, the government would have had to find another funding source to plug an approximately 10 billion Israeli shekel ($2.7 billion) deficit.
Also, if the budget does not pass in full by March, it will force snap elections.
Far-right Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has instructed his party not to support the critical budget measure, which attempts to address a massive budget deficit. At least three others also said they would vote against the measure over their displeasure over forced enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men in the military.
On Monday, the hospital said Netanyahu's recovery was proceeding well after undergoing prostate surgery Sunday night.
US launches airstrikes on military targets of Houthi rebels in Yemen
CAIRO — The U.S. military has launched airstrikes targeting military facilities belonging to Yemen's Houthi rebels in the capital, Sanaa.
U.S. Navy ships and aircraft targeted a Houthi command and control facility and advanced conventional weapon production and storage facilities that included missiles and uncrewed aerial vehicles, the Central Command said.
It said the facilities that were hit were used in attacks against U.S. Navy warships and merchant vessels in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. U.S. Navy and Air Force aircraft also destroyed a Houthi coastal radar site, seven cruise missiles and an UAVs over the Red Sea, it said.
The Houthis have been firing drones and missiles at Israel, as well as attacking shipping in the Red Sea corridor — attacks they say won’t stop until Israel agrees to a ceasefire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The Houthis' media office said Tuesday that 10 airstrikes hit the May 22 facility in Sanaa’s northern Thurah district and two more hit the Aradi facility, which houses the rebels’ defence ministry in central Sanaa.
Mohammed Abdul-Salam, the Houthi chief negotiator and spokesman, called the strikes “a gross violation of the sovereignty of an independent state.”
Israel acknowledges it assassinated Hamas leader in Beirut
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel acknowledged for the first time it was behind the assassination of Hamas leader Saleh Arouri in Beirut in January 2024.
Arouri, the deputy political head of Hamas and a founder of the group's military wing, was one of at least five top Hamas leaders assassinated in Lebanon over the past year, according to the year-end review released by Israel's Shin Bet security service on Tuesday.
France carries out airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria
BEIRUT — France has carried out airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Syria, the first since the ouster of President Bashar Assad, Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu said.
During a visit to French U.N. peacekeepers in neighboring Lebanon, Lecornu said in a post on X that the strikes on Sunday were “part of the fight against terrorism in the Levant.”
France has been a member of an international coalition against the Islamic State group, known as Operation Inherent Resolve, since 2014 in Iraq and 2015 in Syria. The coalition has continued to hit IS militants even after a lightning offensive by Syrian insurgents toppled Assad and altered the country’s political landscape.
The IS group has maintained a presence through sleeper cells in parts of Iraq and Syria, particularly in remote desert regions and areas with limited security oversight.
Israel says it arrested 2,500 Palestinians in Gaza in 2024
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s Shin Bet security service said it had arrested around 2,500 Palestinians in Gaza during 2024, of which 650 were interrogated.
The agency said, without providing evidence, that the interrogations enabled Israel to retrieve nine bodies of hostages who were kidnapped and taken to Gaza during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack.
Additionally, 27 Israelis were indicted for spying for Iran, a nearly four-fold increase from 2023, it said. The Shin Bet released the figures in their year-end review of operations during the calendar year.
In the occupied West Bank, 3,682 Palestinians were arrested on suspicion of involvement in “terror activities,” the Shin Bet said.
Last year, Israel arrested more than 4,000 Palestinians in the West Bank between October to December, according to the U.N.
The U.N. Human Rights Office issued a report this summer saying Palestinians detained by Israeli authorities since the Oct. 7 attacks faced waterboarding, sleep deprivation, electric shocks, dogs set on them and other forms of torture and mistreatment. Israel's prison authorities previously said that all Palestinian prisoners are treated according to Israeli and international law.
Heavy rains and cold weather cause more misery in Gaza
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinians are bailing muddy water out of their frigid tents after heavy rains in war-ravaged Gaza.
Hundreds of thousands of people are living in sprawling tent camps along the coast, where winter brings frequent rainstorms and temperatures drop below 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) at night. At least four babies have died of hypothermia in recent weeks, according to local health officials.
“I’m drowning,” Manal Lubbad sobbed as she waded in ankle-deep water inside her tent on Tuesday, trying to salvage blankets and other belongings. “I’m taking everything out into the street.”
“We are dead, we are not alive! Why is this happening?” she said.
Israel’s nearly 15-month offensive against Hamas, triggered by the militants’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack, has destroyed vast areas of the impoverished territory and displaced some 90% of its population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.
The Civil Defense, first responders affiliated with the Hamas-run government, said it received hundreds of emergency calls to evacuate people from flooded shelters.
Associated Press footage showed barefoot children wading through muddy water between rows of tightly packed tents.
Muhammad Diab placed an empty cooking pot on the dirt floor of his tent to catch rainwater leaking through the roof.
“For God’s sake, find a solution for us. We’ve had enough,” he said. “In the summer there was intense heat and we could bear it, but in the winter we are drowning.”
UN says Israeli attacks on Gaza hospitals push health system to brink of collapse
JERUSALEM — The U.N. Human Rights Office says Israel’s attacks on and around hospitals have pushed Gaza’s health system “to the brink of total collapse” and may have violated international law.
Israeli forces have besieged and raided at least 10 hospitals across Gaza since the start of the war, some of them multiple times. Israel accuses Hamas militants of using health facilities for military purposes but has provided little evidence.
Last week, Israeli troops raided Kamal Adwan Hospital in isolated northern Gaza and detained its director. The army said it apprehended 240 suspected militants.
The U.N. report released Tuesday said it documented 136 strikes on at least 27 hospitals and 12 other medical facilities from Oct. 12, 2023 to June 30, 2024.
“This report graphically details the destruction of the health care system in Gaza, and the extent of killing of patients, staff, and other civilians in these attacks in blatant disregard for international humanitarian and human rights law,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a statement.
The report noted Israel’s allegations and that hospitals lose their protection under international law if they are used for military purposes. But it said “insufficient information has so far been made available to substantiate these allegations, which have remained vague and broad, and in some cases appear contradicted by publicly available information.” Israel has long dismissed such allegations from U.N. bodies, which it says are biased against it.
The nearly 15-month war, ignited by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack into Israel, has forced most of Gaza’s hospitals to close and left the rest only partially functioning.
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