Source: Mondoweiss.net
Casualties
- 19,453+ killed* and more than 52,286 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
- 301 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem
- Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,147.
- 461 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 1,831 injured.
*This figure was confirmed by Gaza’s Ministry of Health on December 19. Due to breakdowns in communication networks within the Gaza Strip, the Ministry of Health in Gaza has not been able to regularly and accurately update its tolls since mid-November. Some rights groups put the death toll number closer to 20,000.
Key Developments
- UN official Martin Griffiths says aid workers “do not have places of safety from which to operate, where people can gather safely to receive aid and be protected” in Gaza.
- Gaza Ministry of Health says Israeli forces turned Al-Awdeh Hospital into military barracks, arresting 240 people, 40 medical staff, 40 patients, and 120 displaced Palestinians.
- Adel Zurob one of 94 Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza since October 7.
- Israeli official denies military targeted Holy Family Catholic parish, claiming “no churches, no Christians” in Gaza Strip.
- Al-Qassam Brigades released video of firing a Kornet missile on Israeli Humvee in Beit Lahia; released video of three elderly Israeli captives pleading with government to free them.
- Palestinian Prisoners Club says Israeli forces arrested 4,605 people in West Bank and Jerusalem since October 7.
- Doctors without Borders (MSF) warns of increased death toll in West Bank and Jenin, following repeated Israeli raids and damages to hospitals and healthcare centers.
UN official says Gaza needs ‘special tribunal’ to investigate Israeli conduct
The atrocities Israel committed in the Gaza Strip may need a UN special tribunal, said Martin Griffiths, the UN’s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs.
Griffiths told The Financial Times in an interview that he has dealt with conflicts and natural disasters in Libya, Afghanistan, Syria, and Sudan, and yet the situation in Gaza, where 136 UN workers have been killed in Israeli bombardment, is by far the worst.
“None of the normal, sound foundations you see across the world for humanitarian operations in places like Syria and Afghanistan exist for us in Gaza. We do not have places of safety from which to operate, where people can gather safely to receive aid and be protected,” he said.
Griffiths added that the death toll in the Gaza Strip will rise sharply when the dust of war settles and rescue teams start to dig under the rubble to retrieve bodies of the slain….