Israel-Hamas war updates: Gaza death toll surpasses 17,700

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

• “There are people who are starving – in Rafah and Khan Younis and the north,” UNRWA spokesperson Adna Abu Hasna tells Al Jazeera.
• Men and a teenage boy from Gaza released from Israeli detention say they were beaten and tortured.
• WHO condemns Israel’s days-long siege on al-Awda Hospital in north Gaza.
• UNRWA says 133 of its staff have been killed in bombardments, most with their families.
• The US State Department skips a congressional review for the emergency sale of 14,000 tank shells to Israel.
• Yemen’s Houthis warn they will target all Israel-bound ships.

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has killed a significantly greater proportion of civilians than the average civilian death toll in conflicts around the world during the 20th century, an Israeli analysis has found.

During the first three weeks of Israel’s bombing campaign, the proportion of civilian deaths reached 61 percent of all those killed, compared with about half for other wars, Yagil Levy, a sociology professor at the Open University of Israel, found in an analysis published by the newspaper Haaretz.

Levy’s analysis also found that civilian deaths during the current conflict have been higher than in past Israeli campaigns in Gaza, with the proportion during the period 2012-2022 hovering around 40 percent.

“The broad conclusion is that extensive killing of civilians not only contributes nothing to Israel’s security, but that it also contains the foundations for further undermining it,” Levy said.

“The Gazans who will emerge from the ruins of their homes and the loss of their families will seek revenge that no security arrangements will be able to withstand.”

Yazan Fasfous is a 13-year-old who has been helping to volunteer at a hospital where his Mum works.

Watch his story here:

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) confirmed the deaths of 133 employees in Gaza due to Israeli attacks.

The UN agency said on X: “Our staff in Gaza take their children to work so they know they are safe, or can die together.

“The situation of civilians in #Gaza is untenable, we are reaching a point of no return. 133 UNRWA colleagues have been confirmed killed in bombardments, most with their families.”

University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill came under intense attack from several members of Congress – as well as alumni of the university and donors – for not stating directly that anti-Semitic comments were a contravention of university policy.

This was the same as what was said by the other two university presidents who were on that congressional panel – the presidents of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

There’s also been a reaction from free speech advocates who are deeply concerned about this particular trend.

Liz McGill argued that her university’s policies were based on a Supreme Court case, Brandenburg versus Ohio, in terms of which the Supreme Court held in 1969 that speech itself is not actionable unless it translates into action – that there is a difference between what is said and what is done.

So on one side, you’ve got deep satisfaction among those who have been calling for her resignation. On the other hand, concerns about freedom of speech, in particular, the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

The US has again vetoed a UN Security Council draft proposal for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Washington’s move has been condemned around the globe. Jordan reflected the view of many critics by calling the veto a licence for Israel to carry on with a massacre.

How will the US’s stance affect its relations with Arab allies? And as some rights groups say, does it risk being complicit in war crimes?

The resignation comes amid backlash after Elizabeth Magill was one of three university presidents to testify at a congressional hearing over protests at US campuses related to the war in Gaza.

Critics have said Magill evaded questions on whether students who call for the genocide of Jews should be disciplined. Magill’s defenders, and Magill herself, have said her response sought to carefully unpack a complex legal and policy question that pits students’ freedom from discrimination against their freedom of speech.

Following the testimony, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression warned that changing the university’s free speech policies would lead to future weaponisation and censorship.

Calls for universities to silence pro-Palestinian protesters have highlighted outside pressure at top US universities that critics say have stifled freedom of expression.

Tens of thousands of people have converged on the UK capital for another weekend of protests, calling for an immediate end to Israel’s assault on Gaza and criticising their government for failing to vote in favour of a ceasefire in the besieged enclave.

Read the full story here.

Several men and a teenage boy released from five days of detention and interrogation by Israeli troops say they were beaten, given only minimal water and often prevented from using the toilet.

Several had bruises on their bodies or deep cuts from zip ties at a hospital in the central Gaza town of Deir el-Balah. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the alleged abuse.

The detainees shed more light on what appears to be a widening army practice of rounding up teenage boys and men as troops sweep through neighbourhoods.

Earlier this week, photos emerged showing soldiers guarding dozens of men who were kneeling or sitting in the streets, stripped down to their underwear, with hands tied behind their backs.

As thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv to demand the government do more to secure the release of captives held in Gaza, some of those released as part of a deal between Israel and Hamas recounted their experience.

One woman, Margalit Moses, 77, said in a video testimony that she tried to take with her a machine that helps her breathe at night. However, she said those holding her captive took the machine away, telling her to sit and lean her head back against the wall.

“I could breathe that way, but I couldn’t fall asleep,” she said.

Adina Moshe, 72, said her close friends were left behind when she was released during the days-long break in fighting. She said her friends are old, with health problems with no access to medicine.

“The food situation there deteriorated; in the end, we were eating just rice,” she said.

Israel has said about 137 people are believed to remain in captivity in Gaza.

The world-renowned Spanish-American chef, who set up the non-profit World Central Kitchen, says about 160 trucks have been cleared to enter Gaza but the US has to support a UN resolution for a ceasefire for them to cross into the besieged enclave.

In recent weeks, the NGO set up a kitchen in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip where thousands of Palestinians have been forced to flee.

In a post on X, Andres said UN agencies also have humanitarian aid trucks waiting at Egypt’s El Arish.

The leaders of the four EU countries are pushing for leaders from the bloc to jointly call for a lasting humanitarian ceasefire at a summit next week, according to a letter sent to the chairman of EU.

Leaders of the 27 EU countries will meet on December 14-15 in Brussels.

A summary of the letter, seen by the Reuters news agency, said EU leaders should reach a common position to “urgently ask the parties to declare a lasting humanitarian ceasefire that can lead to the end of hostilities”, and ask for measures to immediately protect civilians in Gaza.

Palestinian politician Hanan Ashrawi responded to a post on X from Blinken after the top US diplomat’s meeting with an Arab League delegation in Washington, DC.

“Please spare us,” she wrote. “Your posturing is ridiculous & your words are hollow.”

She condemned the US for providing weapons to Israel “to pursue its slaughter [and] mass destruction in Gaza, [and] its theft [and] rampage in the West Bank”.

“You are complicit,” she wrote.

The military says it hit several Hezbollah military positions in the latest round of strikes.

Hezbollah earlier claimed several attacks on Israeli military positions in northern Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently warned that Beirut would be turned “into Gaza” if Hezbollah started an all-out war.

“If Hezbollah chooses to start an all-out war then it will, by its own hand, turn Beirut and southern Lebanon, not far from here, into Gaza and Khan Younis,” Netanyahu said while visiting troops near the border.

Gaza residents report air strikes and shelling, including in the southern city of Rafah near the Egyptian border – one area where the Israeli army ordered civilians to evacuate to. One man denounced the US for vetoing a UN resolution for an immediate ceasefire.

“We now live in the Gaza Strip and are governed by the American law of the jungle. America has killed human rights,” said Rafah resident Abu Yasser al-Khatib. “The Palestinian people will not leave and do not want to leave.”

In northern Gaza, Israel has been trying to secure the military’s hold despite heavy resistance from Hamas. Tens of thousands of residents are believed to remain despite evacuation orders, six weeks after troops and tanks rolled in.

Yemen’s Houthi movement says it will target all ships heading to Israel, regardless of their nationality, and warned all international shipping companies against dealing with Israeli ports.

“If Gaza does not receive the food and medicines it needs, all ships in the Red Sea bound for Israeli ports, regardless of their nationality, will become a target for our armed forces,” the group’s spokesperson said in a statement.

Read more here.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned the US government’s use of emergency authority to allow the sale of about 14,000 tank shells to Israel without congressional review.

“Rushing deadly weapons to the far-right and openly genocidal Israeli government without congressional review robs American voters of their voice in Congress, emboldens Netanyahu to kill more Palestinian civilians, and furthers stains our nation’s standing in the world,” CAIR’s National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said.

“The Biden administration’s decision is an affront to democracy and an act of moral insanity.”

The international health organisation says it is “gravely concerned” for the safety of patients, health workers and all others at the al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza.

It said the hospital “has remained besieged” since December 5 and two health workers were fatally shot while working inside the hospital.

“WHO is appalled by the continuing attacks on health care across the Gaza Strip,” it said in a post on X, calling for a ceasefire.

The Israeli finance minister has led efforts to freeze tax money meant to be transferred to the Palestinian Authority.

Smotrich initially sought to freeze the entire amount but the Israeli cabinet later said it would only freeze part of the revenue earmarked for Gaza.

The Palestinian Authority’s finance minister rejected accepting the partial fund, saying it violated the “social contract” with residents of Gaza.

In post on X, Smotrich wrote: “Not a single shekel will go to Gaza during my term and the days of Israel’s transfer of funds to the Palestinian Authority to pay salaries to the families of terrorists are over.”