Updates: Israel attacks Kamal Adwan Hospital amid Gaza ceasefire push

For a feature on how grandfather Khaled Nabhan is being grieved by his loves ones in Gaza, read this.

For a piece outlining how Irish support for Palestine resulted in its decision to join South Africa’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) case accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, read this.

And for a continuation of our live coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, go here.

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

• Israeli forces have continued to pound Gaza, killing at least 15 people, including at least eight in the besieged north.
• Medical staff at northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital have said that shrapnel from Israeli attacks has wounded patients seeking treatment.
• Hamas has described ceasefire talks held in Qatar as serious and positive and said reaching a deal is possible if Israel stops setting new conditions.
• In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinians near the town of Sofin, east of Qalqilya. Israeli forces also arrested 12 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to prisoner rights groups.
• Despite a ceasefire deal, Israeli forces fired a drone at a vehicle in the village of Majdal Zoun in the Tyre district of southern Lebanon, wounding three people.
• The UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, has said UN-led aid missions to the north of Gaza are still being “overwhelmingly denied” by Israeli authorities.

Five Palestinian families in the US have sued the State Department over Washington’s continued support for Israel amid a growing death toll in Gaza and worsening humanitarian crisis, a court filing shows.

The lawsuit, filed in the District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that the State Department under Secretary of State Antony Blinken has deliberately circumvented a US human rights law to continue funding and supporting Israeli military units.

“The State Department’s calculated failure to apply the Leahy Law is particularly shocking in the face of the unprecedented escalation of Israeli gross violations of human rights since the Gaza War erupted on October 7, 2023,” the lawsuit said.

The Leahy Law bans providing military assistance to individuals or security force units that commit human rights violations.

Israel and Saudi Arabia have denied reports that there has been a breakthrough in normalisation talks, The Times of Israel reported.

The Israeli news outlet Haaretz reported earlier today that Saudi Arabia has relinquished its demand for a Palestinian state as a precondition for normalisation.

However, right-wing Israeli politicians took the report to mean that Netanyahu had agreed to a Palestinian state, which his office later denied, calling the report “a complete lie”.

Saudi Arabia also denied the report.

“The notion that the kingdom’s leadership has somehow modified its longstanding commitment to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state is equally baseless,” a statement issued to reporters by an unnamed Saudi official said.

“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia will continue to work towards ending the war in Gaza and helping the Palestinian people achieve their right to an independent state,” the statement added.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that between December 1 and December 16, the UN attempted to reach areas in the besieged northern Gaza 40 times.

The area, where famine is looming, has been under Israeli siege for more than 70 days since Israeli forces launched a renewed ground offensive.

In a post on X, OCHA said that out of the 40 attempts, 38 were denied and two were “initially approved but faced impediments”.

The UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, says UN-led aid missions to the north of Gaza are still being “overwhelmingly denied” by Israeli authorities, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters on Tuesday.

“Three humanitarian missions planning to bring food and water to parts of besieged North Gaza were once again denied by Israeli authorities”, on Tuesday, Dujarric added.

He said missions to the “besieged areas” in Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoon and parts of Jabalia were “especially” affected.

“As the Israeli siege on North Gaza continues, OCHA stresses once again that civilians who remain there must be protected, and their essential needs must be met.”

The association has commended Lise Klaveness, the president of the Norwegian Football Federation, for saying that the organisation “stands with the Norwegian government’s call for an immediate halt to the disproportionate attacks on innocent civilians in Gaza”.

These comments, which included a call to investigate Israel, came a day after Israel and Norway were drawn in the same group in the 2025 World Cup qualifying round.

In October, FIFA, football’s global governing body, launched an investigation of Israel’s Football Association after Palestine accused it of discrimination. The results of the investigation could result in a suspension for Israel’s football teams.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has slammed Irish President Michael D Higgins after he said Israel had violated the sovereignty of Syria, Lebanon and Egypt amid a diplomatic spat between the two countries.

Saar said that the “anti-Semite”, Ireland’s president, spread “slander” against Israel when he said that Israel had “violated the sovereignty of three neighbouring countries”.

He accused Ireland of having ties with Nazi Germany during World War II in addition to his attacks on Higgins.

On Sunday, Israel announced it would close its Dublin embassy due to the Irish government’s “extreme anti-Israel policies”, including the recognition of a Palestinian state.

Ireland, which has recognised the State of Palestine, says it stands for human rights and international law.

Israel is shutting down its embassy in the Republic of Ireland, accusing the government in Dublin of pursuing “anti-Israel” policies.

But the Irish government has rejected Israel’s accusations and said that it stands for human rights and international law.

Al Jazeera’s Inside Story speaks to experts on what is behind Israel’s move.

Watch the discussion below:

US foreign intelligence chief Bill Burns will travel to Qatar tomorrow and meet with Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Doha to bridge the remaining gaps between Israel and Hamas, a source knowledgeable about the talks told the Reuters news agency.

Several other media outlets are also reporting this news.

Reuters’s source added that the two will discuss progress towards a Gaza ceasefire and captive release deal.

Kamal Adwan Hospital, in Beit Lahiya, has come under repeated attack since the start of Israel’s siege of northern Gaza.

The Israeli military has used exploding robots near its grounds, detonating them at night.

The explosions have devastated nearby buildings and terrorised patients.

Al Jazeera’s Moath al-Kahlout reports from inside the hospital:

The United Nations says Israel violated the ceasefire with Syria after it captured a demilitarised buffer zone following the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“The presence of the Israeli Defence Forces in the buffer zone is a violation of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Dujarric added that the agreement “needs to be respected, and occupation is occupation — whether it lasts a week, a month or a year, it remains occupation.”

Earlier, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced that troops would remain on the border for the foreseeable future until an alternative arises.

Wafa news agency reports that the victim was a displaced Palestinian woman, who was sheltering in al-Mawasi, which Isreal has designated in the past as a “humanitarian safe zone”.

According to Wafa’s sources, Israel bombed a tent sheltering displaced people in al-Mawasi, causing the death and the wounding of children.

The Israeli army says it identified an alleged Hezbollah member “loading a vehicle with weapons in southern Lebanon”, adding that the group violated the terms of the ceasefire agreement.

In a statement on Telegram, the army said the air force targeted the vehicle to “eliminate the threat”.

Earlier, we reported an Israeli drone strike on a car in Majdal Zoun, a village in southern Lebanon, that injured three people. It is unclear if this is the same attack the Israeli army is claiming responsibility for.

Since the ceasefire agreement between Hezbollah and Israel came into effect in November, Israel has continued sporadic attacks on Lebanon.

Parliament member Moshe Gafni has reportedly told the families of Israeli captives held in Gaza that he opposes the ceasefire deal currently being negotiated, Israeli media reports.

“The matter is nearing its resolution, but not the one I want. The deal isn’t to my taste,” Gafni told the family members, Israel’s Channel 12 news and its Ynet news site reported.

When asked to elaborate, Gafni said, “I want a comprehensive deal with everyone [coming back], and the government is going for a phased deal. To be frank, I’m in the coalition, and I don’t know why. I don’t know what we’re doing in this coalition.”

Israeli forces raided neighbourhood’s in Hebron’s Old City, arresting three brothers from their home, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports.

It cited local sources as saying Israeli soldiers stormed the home of Shafiq Ghaith, arresting his sons Yazan, Umayya and Abdul, after brutally assaulting them and causing material damage to the house during the raid.

At 2am on November 29, 2023, in the shattered remains of Deir el-Balah, Khaled Nabhan cradled his granddaughter’s small, lifeless body.

An Israeli air strike had killed three-year-old Reem and her five-year-old brother Tarek, the two youngest children of his eldest daughter, Maysa.

Gently kissing Reem’s closed eyes, he whispered that she was “Ruh al-ruh” (soul of my soul) and the moment was caught on camera, making the 54-year-old grandfather an icon of Gaza’s agony.

Since that moment, more videos were shared of Khaled Nabhan as he navigated his loss and worked to help as many people as he could, and he inadvertently became an icon of Gaza’s suffering.

Then, a little more than a year later, on Monday around noon, Israel struck again, bombing the Nuseirat refugee camp and killing him.

Read more here.

“I think cautious optimism is a fair way to characterise it, though very much tempered by realism,” US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller tells reporters from Washington, DC.

Miller did acknowledge, however, that similar hopes for a ceasefire have been dashed before.

Earlier, we reported that Hamas said a ceasefire was indeed possible as long as Israel stops setting new conditions.