#gaza-casualties

#gaza-casualties

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres again has called on Israel to immediately allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, as the Israeli authorities continue to block dozens of Palestinians from exiting the war-ravaged enclave to seek medical treatment. Guterres made the appeal on Tuesday, as more than 100 sick and injured Palestinians congregated at the newly reopened Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, hoping to access medical care abroad.

A senior security official briefed Israeli journalists, saying about 70,000 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli attacks on the territory since October 2023, excluding those missing. It is the first time Israel has publicly estimated the toll from the war in Gaza. Previously the government and military had only provided figures for militants Israel claimed to have killed. Gaza health authorities said the direct toll from Israeli attacks had exceeded 71,660 people, with at least 10,000 presumed buried in the rubble of bombed buildings.

The film tells the true story of Hind, who was killed by Israeli forces in 2024 as she and her family tried to evacuate Gaza City, blending recordings of real emergency calls with dramatic re-enactments. It draws on harrowing audio from Hind Rajab's call to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, in which rescuers tried to reassure her as she lay trapped in a bullet-ridden car with the bodies of her aunt, uncle and three cousins, who had all been killed by Israeli fire.

Israel has attacked more countries than any other country this year. In 2025, Israel attacked at least six countries, including Palestine, Iran, Lebanon, Qatar, Syria, and Yemen. It also carried out strikes in Tunisian, Maltese and Greek territorial waters on aid flotillas heading for Gaza. According to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), an independent conflict monitor, from January 1 to December 5, Israel carried out at least 10,631 attacks, marking one of the broadest geographic military offensives in a single year.

Here in Bethlehem, from where I send the Christmas message not only to Bethlehem but to the entire world, I have noticed the presence of light, Pizzaballa said. And this is not just the light of the sun, but the light of your beautiful faces. We decided to be light, and the light of Bethlehem is the light of the world, he added. Today, we bring you peace, prayers, and hearts.

Police in the United Kingdom have made their first arrests since announcing their intent to crack down on people making public calls to globalise the Intifada after Australia's Bondi Beach attack, speciously linking largely peaceful protests against Israel's genocidal war with a deadly targeting of a Jewish festival. London's Metropolitan Police posted on X late on Wednesday that it had made four arrests at pro-Palestinian protests held outside the Ministry of Justice in Westminster, all involving the alleged shouting or chanting of slogans involving calls for intifada.

"When Friedrich Merz voices this criticism of Israel, we listen very carefully because he is a friend," the diplomat told German public broadcaster ZDF.

"We do not have sufficient resources or the DNA to match them with the martyrs' families," Dheir said.

Hundreds of protesters have defied the Prime Minister and marched through central London on the second anniversary of the October 7 attacks. Scores of demonstrators wearing keffiyehs in an array of colours took part in an Inter-University March stopping to protest at some of London's most prestigious universities, including King's College London (KCL) and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

"Most days I feel helpless," said Kordia, 32, speaking from a Texas immigration detention center where she has been jailed since March.

Growing up in the West Bank, Leqaa Kordia was separated from family in Gaza by Israeli restrictions on movement between the territories. So aunts and uncles in Gaza would call from the beach there, allowing Kordia to share her cousins' laughter and glimpse the waves. Now many of those relatives are dead, killed in the war that has destroyed much of the Strip. And more than 200 days after Kordia

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Security Cabinet, has slammed US President Donald Trump's new peace plan, calling it "a resounding diplomatic failure." In an extensive post on X, Smotrich referenced the 2023 Hamas-led attacks that sparked the current war in Gaza, accusing Trump and Netanyahu of "turning our backs on all the lessons of October 7." He blasted the plan as "a tragedy of leadership fleeing from the truth." "In my estimation, it will also end in tears. Our children will be forced to fight in Gaza again," said Smotrich, the leader of the hardline, ultra-nationalist National Religious Party-Religious Zionism.

Facing international isolation, accusations of war crimes and growing pressure to end a conflict he has continued to escalate, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gets his chance to push back Friday on the international community's biggest platform. Netanyahu's annual speech to the U.N. General Assembly is always closely watched, often protested, reliably emphatic and sometimes a venue for dramatic allegations. But this time, the stakes are higher than ever for the Israeli leader.

Some of the protest's participants handed pamphlets to passersby, which read in part: "We, artists, creators, and cultural practitioners, stand here today to raise our voices against the crimes being committed in our name. Since the beginning of the war, more than 64,000 people have been murdered in Gaza and over 160,000 wounded, among them dozens of artists, writers, and cultural activists."

No matter where you are, Israel's long arm' may be coming for you next. And so Israel has struck again. On Tuesday, the Middle East's favourite perennial aggressor launched missiles against the Qatari capital of Doha, targeting Hamas leaders involved in negotiations surrounding a proposal from the United States for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli genocide of Palestinians has officially killed more than 64,000 people in less than two years.

In just three days, Israel has carried out strikes in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, Qatar and Yemen. On Tuesday, Israel launched a targeted air strike on a Hamas leadership compound in Qatar's capital, Doha, during a meeting to discuss a US-proposed ceasefire for Gaza. The strike killed six people, including the son of senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya, the director of al-Hayya's office, three bodyguards and a Qatari security officer. However, its top leaders are reported to have survived the attack.

A leaked military report suggests only 17 percent of those killed in Gaza were fighters. Israel has been bombing Gaza for nearly two years, killing more than 62,000 people, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza says, but the real number is likely much higher. Israel claims it is targeting fighters from Hamas, not civilians, but a leaked military report reveals a different story.