The Israeli army has decided to return to its territory five brigades (one of which consists of reservists) that were involved in ground operations in the Gaza Strip. This was announced by military radio, according to which the decision, which will apparently be implemented in the next few days, was made after an examination of the situation on site. According to media reports, rocket fires from Gaza towards Israel have decreased significantly in the last week. The commercial television station Channel 13 has learned from military sources that this redistribution affects the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
According to Arabic broadcaster Al Jazeera, at least twelve people died on Saturday, December 30, as a result of an Israeli shelling of a residential building in Zawaida in the center of the Gaza Strip.
Gaza
One of the founders of Hamas's military wing, Abdel Fattah Ma'ali, was killed in an Israeli bombing in Gaza. This was reported by military radio, citing information from a Palestinian source. As the former “right-hand man” of the engineer Yihia Ayash (the manufacturer of sophisticated bombs that caused numerous Israeli casualties in the Intifada), Ma'ali subsequently spent long periods in Syria, Yemen and Sudan, honing his military knowledge. In 2006 he returned to Gaza and took a senior position in the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas. Military radio added that the army is expanding its operations to Khan Yunis (the capital in the southern part of the Gaza Strip) and the nearby towns of Nusseirat and Daraj-Tufach. “100 terrorists have been killed” in these areas in the last two days, he said. “We are making slow but steady progress,” the broadcaster specified. Meanwhile, the military spokesman added that ready-to-use explosive devices were found and neutralized in a nursery in Shati, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
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The director of the United Nations Disaster Relief Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, Tom White, said that at least 40% of the Gaza Strip's population was at risk of famine. In a post on his X account, White shared a video of a large group of people in Gaza surrounding a humanitarian convoy and jumping onto aid trucks. “More regular deliveries are needed: safe and sustainable humanitarian access is needed everywhere, including in the north of the Gaza Strip,” the UNRWA official said.
Video Gaza City, destroyed buildings and rubble
At least 21,822 people have been killed in Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip since the war broke out on October 7, Hamas' health ministry said today. The new figure includes 150 deaths in the last 24 hours, we read in a statement from the ministry, according to which 56,451 people have been injured in Gaza since the start of the war.
War in the Middle East
Two Israeli soldiers have died in ongoing fighting in the Gaza Strip. This was announced by the military spokesman. One was hit yesterday in the central part of the strip and the other today in the northern part. This brings the total number of Israeli soldiers killed in the field operations launched at the end of October to 172.
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