Israel-Hamas war updates: Gaza ‘fast becoming unlivable’ as fighting rages

This live page is now closed. Follow along with our coverage of the Israeli war on Gaza at our new page, here.

To find out what experts have said about the consequences of the war at today’s Doha Forum, read our analysis piece here.

Israel should learn from French mistakes in Algeria, writes former UN official Moncef Khane. Read more on why he believes so in this opinion piece.

We will soon be closing this live page. Here’s a recap of the day’s developments:

• Father of Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif has been killed in an Israeli attack on the family’s home in northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp.
• Israel’s air raids in central, northern and southern Gaza have continued to kill Palestinians, with ground fighting reported in the southern part of the Strip.
• Hezbollah has claimed an attack on Israeli forces in the Shtula area in northern Israel.
• In leaked comments, Netanyahu has told Israeli lawmakers that he will not allow the Palestinian Authority to return to Gaza.
• Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has said that Hamas is at a “breaking point” in northern Gaza.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has denounced what it called Israel’s “unlawful” use of the incendiary material in civilian areas, citing a Washington Post report documenting the deployment of US-supplied white phosphorus in Lebanon.

“The Israeli government’s reported use of white phosphorus is a horrific war crime that our nation must condemn, investigate and address,” CAIR Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said in a statement.

“Our nation must also immediately end all material support for the Israeli government’s ongoing human rights abuses against civilians.”

US officials have expressed concern about the Washington Post report. Israel has stressed that its military abides by the laws of war.

In an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic, UN Special Rapporteur on Food Michael Fakhri said that what the world is witnessing today is a “genocide”, adding that the more than 2.3 million people in Gaza are all facing hunger.

Fakhri, a professor at the University of Oregon School of Law in the US, also said:

• The health system in Gaza has collapsed and no one is safe from diseases in the besieged enclave.
• The UN Security Council has proven “ineffective” in ensuring international peace and security, given the situation in Gaza.
• The Human Rights Council must meet in Geneva as soon as possible to stop the killing of Palestinians.

Israel’s State Attorney Amit Aisman ordered the Police Internal Investigations Department to conduct the investigation, according to the Times of Israel.

Yuval Castleman was killed by Israeli security forces after he had laid down a gun he had used to kill two Hamas attackers, who had in turn killed three Israelis. Despite raising his hands and falling to his knees, Israeli forces presumed Castleman to be a threat and an officer shot him dead.

There have been numerous past incidents of Israeli forces shooting unarmed Palestinians deemed to be threats but the death of an Israeli Jewish man has put added pressure on the Israeli police to justify their practices.

Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official in Beirut, has responded to reports that Israel is ready to negotiate for an exchange of captives.

“The Israeli side aims, through the ongoing leaks, to confront internal pressures,” Hamdan told Al Jazeera, referring to unnamed Israeli officials quoted by media outlets who said that Israel is open to another truce.

“Israeli positions on a prospective deal are for internal consumption,” he said.

Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), has decried footage showing Palestinians arrested by Israel in Gaza stripped to their underwear.

“The Israeli army’s publication of shocking photos of detained Palestinian men in Gaza stripped & blindfolded constitutes ‘outrages upon personal dignity’ – a form of inhumane treatment that amounts to a war crime,” Shakir wrote in a social media post, referring to a section of the Geneva Conventions.

“Perpetrators should be held to account.”

Several family members of the men shown in the videos have refuted Israeli claims that they are Hamas members.

Several women and children have been killed in an Israeli military attack on a residential home in southern Gaza’s Rafah.

Others were also reported injured as a result of the attack, which witnesses described as sudden. The house was sheltering forcibly displaced Palestinians from other parts of Gaza who had sought refuge in Rafah, the witnesses said.

Dozens of Palestinians have been “killed and injured” in Israeli army attacks in several other parts of Gaza as well, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. These include attacks in central and southern Gaza, including in Khan Younis.

Israeli military watchtowers loom over Lajee Celtic’s football pitch as much of the Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem is surrounded by the grey, graffiti-covered Israeli separation wall.

In times of relative normality, the pitch would be full of Palestinian footballers playing under the gaze of Israeli occupation.

But since October 7, when Israel’s latest war on Gaza began in response to deadly attacks by Hamas, all the club’s activities have been halted as violence has also soared across the occupied West Bank.

Lajee Celtic football club, informally known as Aida Celtic, was set up in 2016 in a joint effort between the Lajee Center in Aida and members of the Green Brigade, a left-wing fan group of Glasgow Celtic, which has often expressed solidarity with Palestine.

Read more here.

Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) says the surgeon was hurt earlier today by a shot fired from outside al-Awda Hospital.

In a post on X, the group said the hospital has been under “total siege” by Israeli forces since December 5. “Our colleagues report snipers surrounding the hospital, firing on those inside,” MSF said.

“Al-Awda is a functioning hospital with medical staff and many patients in vulnerable condition. Targeting medical workers as they care for their patients is utterly reprehensible, utterly inhumane,” added Renzo Fricke, MSF’s country director.

Attacks at al-Awda Hospital since October 7 have killed five hospital staff, including two MSF doctors, the group said.

It’s 11pm (21:00 GMT) in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Here are the key developments from the past few hours:

• Israel says will screen humanitarian aid at Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing with Gaza, but deliveries will still only enter enclave through Egypt’s Rafah crossing.
• In leaked comments, Netanyahu tells Israeli lawmakers that he will not allow the Palestinian Authority to return to Gaza.
• A solidarity strike with Gaza shuts down businesses across the occupied West Bank.
• An Israeli attack kills the father of Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif in Jabalia; the media network renews calls for the international community to stop the “brutal targeting of both journalists and civilians” in Gaza.
• The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza says the bodies of at least 208 people had arrived in the territory’s hospitals on Monday.

The protesters also called for UN member states to vote in favour of a nonbinding resolution set to be put forward tomorrow at the General Assembly, Al Jazeera Arabic’s Rami Ayari reported from New York.

Last week, the US vetoed a draft resolution at the Security Council that had called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire as well as the release of all captives in Gaza.

The move drew widespread outrage, with human rights advocates saying Washington was giving Israel a green light to continue with its devastating bombardment.

The Palestinian Red Crescent says its teams transported 10 bodies and 15 wounded people after a home came under attack in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.

Prior to October 7, the Biden administration made a renewed push to normalise ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

But the Gaza war has put Riyadh and other Arab nations who signed a peace deal with Israel in an awkward position.

Read our full report to find out what experts who spoke at the Doha Forum had to say about this and other consequences for the region as a result of the war in Gaza.

The UN has been calling on the Israeli authorities to open the crossing between Israel and Gaza to allow humanitarian aid into the enclave; since the war began, limited supplies have only been allowed in through the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

In a statement on X, COGAT, the Israeli coordination office for affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories, said that as of tomorrow, aid would be transferred from Egypt’s El Arish to be checked at the Nitzana and Karem Abu Salem (also known as Kerem Shalom) crossings.

From there, it will be transferred to Rafah crossing to be delivered to humanitarian organisations in Gaza, COGAT said in a post on X.

Miller, the State Department spokesman, said the administration is “concerned” by a Washington Post report documenting the Israeli use of US-supplied white phosphorus in Lebanon.

White phosphorus is a highly incendiary, toxic substance that can burn through metal and its use in civilian areas is prohibited under international law.

“Anytime that we provide items like white phosphorus, or really anything to another military, we do it with the expectation that it will be used for legitimate purposes and in full keeping with international humanitarian law and the law of armed conflict,” Miller said.

“So we’re looking into this and looking for additional information.”

In October, Human Rights Watch also said Israel had used white phosphorus in Gaza and Lebanon.

The US congresswoman has commented on the Biden administration’s decision to bypass Congress to send $100m worth of tank ammunition to Israel amid the war on Gaza.

“Our district didn’t send President Biden to the White House to have him facilitate the killing of innocent civilians. We didn’t turn out in huge numbers to elect President Biden to have him supply the bombs for a genocide,” Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, said in a statement.

“This administration’s refusal to acknowledge the human dignity of Palestinians is disturbing, and actions like this speak loud and clear.”

Tlaib added that the Biden administration’s transfer of about 14,000 tank shells to Israel also leaves it “at serious risk of prosecution by the International Criminal Court”.

Earlier, a group of protesters staged a demonstration outside the White House with 20 women describing themselves as “Jewish elders” chaining their bodies to a fence guarding the White House.

Wearing black T-shirts that read “Not In Our Name” the women chanted “Biden, Biden, pick a side! Ceasefire not genocide!”.

Officers from US Park Police eventually took the women away after using a bolt cutter to cut the chains that encircled their waists. Organisers said they deliberately picked Monday – the day of the White House’s Hanukkah celebration – to protest.

“We, as elder Jews, we know what genocide looks like. We know what genocide feels like. It’s in our bodies, in our bones,” said Esther Farmer of Jewish Voice for Peace, which organised the demonstration.

“It’s horrifying, it’s devastating. Sometimes it’s hard to get up in the morning to see this, and it’s being done in the name of Jews. So we are here – as elderly Jews – to say, ‘Not in our name’.”