According to Hamas, over 20,000 people have been killed since the beginning of the conflict in the Gaza Strip
13.51 hrs: As per the portrayal by the Islamist Hamas-controlled health authority in the Gaza Strip, 20,057 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the conflict. The authority stated on Friday that 390 people have been killed in the past two days alone. At present, these numbers cannot be verified.
According to the information, a total of 53,320 people are said to have been injured. The Hamas authority had previously mentioned at least 20,000 deaths, but did not specify the number. Among the casualties, thousands of minors are reported to be included. However, these details cannot currently be verified.
The trigger for the Gaza conflict was the worst massacre in the history of Israel, which terrorists from the Islamist Hamas and other extremist groups carried out on October 7 near the border with Gaza in Israel. They murdered over 1200 people. In response, Israel launched massive air strikes and a ground offensive.
Israel urges more residents in the Gaza Strip to evacuate
Friday, December 22, 12.35 hrs: The Israeli military has called on the residents of the Al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip to evacuate. According to an army spokesperson on the X platform in Arabic, people are to seek shelter in Deir al-Balah, about six kilometers further south. The call also applies to people from other neighborhoods in the north and center of the coastal area. The army did not specify a timeframe for this. Israel recently announced its intention to expand the ground offensive to additional areas in the Gaza Strip.
The army spokesperson announced a four-hour humanitarian tactical combat pause in a neighborhood in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip for Friday. This is intended to facilitate the supply of the residents.
Israel has been urging the civilian population in the north of the Gaza Strip for weeks to move to the south of the sealed-off coastal strip for their own safety. People there live in very cramped conditions. Approximately 1.9 out of the approximately 2.2 million inhabitants of the narrow coastal area have had to leave their homes and apartments due to the fighting.
Israel has called on them to go to safe zones marked on maps by the Israeli military.
According to the United Nations, such zones do not exist. A safe zone should provide at least accommodation, protection, sanitary facilities, and sufficient food and water. This is not the case anywhere.
Israel’s army asserts control over Hamas stronghold Shuja’iyya
17.29 hrs: According to the Israeli military, they have established “operational control” over the Gaza City district of Shuja’iyya, which is considered a Hamas stronghold. “The troops will continue to carry out limited operations in the district to destroy the remaining infrastructure of Hamas and to kill fighters in hiding,” said a statement from the military on Thursday.
Shuja’iyya in the north of the coastal strip was the scene of intense fighting between Israeli soldiers and Hamas terrorists until recently. Last week, the military accidentally killed three Israeli hostages who had escaped from the violence of their captors in the area.
During the fighting in the district, the Israeli military reportedly killed numerous Hamas fighters and destroyed dozens of entrances to Hamas tunnels, according to the statement. Nine Israeli soldiers, including two high-ranking ones, fell into an Islamist ambush.
Officials, dead.
The war was triggered by the worst massacre in Israel’s history, committed by terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups on October 7th in Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip. Over 1,200 people have been killed on the Israeli side, including at least 850 civilians. Hamas and other groups had abducted about 240 people as hostages in the Gaza Strip.
New rocket attacks on Tel Aviv and the south of Israel
15:20: Rocket attacks in the south of Israel and in the coastal city of Tel Aviv have triggered air raid sirens on Thursday. The military wing of the radical Islamic Hamas announced that it had launched “rocket fire” towards Tel Aviv “in response to the Israeli massacres against civilians.” After the interception of the firing by the Israeli air defense, falling debris was reported, but no casualties.
The war between the Palestinian organization Hamas and Israel has been going on for almost eleven weeks now. The fighting was triggered by an unprecedented major attack by Hamas on October 7th. Hundreds of fighters from the organization, classified as a terrorist organization by the US and the EU, had infiltrated Israeli cities and villages and had committed atrocities against civilians there. According to Israeli reports, about 1140 people were killed and around 250 others were abducted as hostages into the Gaza Strip.
In response, Israel began to attack targets in the Gaza Strip and launched a ground offensive. According to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, which cannot be independently verified, at least 20,000 people have been killed.
German family killed in Gaza? Public prosecutor’s office investigates
14:22: The public prosecutor’s office in Dortmund has initiated a death investigation procedure to obtain information about the case of a German family allegedly killed in the Gaza war. The six-member family, last resident in Dortmund, is said to have died at the end of October during a stay in the Gaza Strip, according to unconfirmed reports, a spokesperson for the public prosecutor’s office said on Thursday in response to an inquiry. A rocket was said to have hit the house where the couple and their four children were staying. Earlier, the WDR had reported about the investigations that were initiated.
The prosecutor explained that they were examining whether the family had actually died and what circumstances had led to this in this case. A brother of the family’s father had stated that he, along with his wife and four children, had been killed in a rocket attack in the Gaza Strip. So far, there has been no confirmation of this. The public prosecutor’s office is now trying to obtain new information on this matter.
The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office had not seen any initial suspicion of a criminal offense falling within its jurisdiction. Therefore, it had handed over the case to the Dortmund authorities, as the family had last lived in the Ruhr area city, the public prosecutor’s spokesperson described. The “Süddeutsche Zeitung” had also recently reported that the family had been killed in an Israeli attack at the end of October.
Israeli army: Search dog camera recorded voices of hostages
13:05: During the use of a search dog by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, cries for help from three hostages were recorded, who were accidentally shot by soldiers five days later. The dog was sent into a building with a body camera during a firefight, according to Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari, as stated in a transcript published in the night to Thursday.
“The terrorists shot at the dog,und von diesem Moment an hörten wir die Stimmen der Gefangenen“, berichtete Hagari. Die Kamera am Leib des Hundes, der bei dem Einsatz ums Leben kam, wurde erst am Dienstag aufgefunden und ausgewertet.
Das Gebäude war etwa einen Kilometer entfernt von dem Ort, an dem die Geiseln später niedergeschossen wurden. Nach Analyse der Kameraaufnahmen wird angenommen, dass die Männer, die die Geiseln festgehalten haben, bei dem Vorfall getötet wurden. Anschließend konnten die Geiseln offenbar aus dem Gebäude fliehen.
Israelische Soldaten hatten die drei israelischen Gefangenen am Freitag in Schedschaija im Norden des abgeriegelten Küstenstreifens unbeabsichtigt erschossen. Sie trugen keine Hemden, einer hielt einen Stock mit einem weißen Stück Stoff in der Hand. Die Armee erklärte später, dass die Soldaten gegen die Einsatzregeln verstoßen hatten, als sie dennoch das Feuer eröffneten.
Während eines Massakers im israelischen Grenzgebiet am 7. Oktober hatten Terroristen der islamistischen Terrororganisation Hamas und anderer Gruppierungen rund 240 Menschen in den Gazastreifen entführt. Während einer Feuerpause wurden 105 Gefangene freigelassen, im Austausch für 240 palästinensische Häftlinge. Israel vermutet, dass noch mehr als 100 Geiseln in dem Küstenstreifen festgehalten werden.
Tunnel verbinden Residenzen und Büros der Hamas
06.25 Uhr: Das israelische Militär hat neue Erkenntnisse zum umfangreichen Tunnelsystem der Hamas im nördlichen Gazastreifen veröffentlicht. Eine zentrale Rolle spielte der Palästina-Platz im Zentrum der Stadt Gaza, teilte die Armee am Mittwoch mit. Von dort aus sollten „Büros und Wohnungen der politischen sowie militärischen Hamas-Führung“ unterirdisch erreichbar gewesen sein. Die Angaben konnten zunächst nicht unabhängig überprüft werden. Am Sonntag hatte die Armee bereits die Entdeckung eines Tunnelnetzes im Norden bekannt gegeben.
Nach der Übernahme eines Gebietes in der Stadt Gaza wurden weitere Einzelheiten der „strategischen Tunnelroute“ am Mittwoch aufgedeckt. Neben Treppen ermöglichten auch Aufzüge den Abstieg in das unterirdische System. In einigen Fällen wurden Vorräte, Trinkwasser- und elektrische Infrastrukturen vorgefunden. „Auf diese Weise konnten Hamas-Kämpfer sowohl fliehen als auch für längere Zeit in ihren Verstecken bleiben“, hieß es.
Das Tunnelnetz soll von hochrangigen Funktionären der Organisation, Ismail Hanija, Jihia Sinwar, Mohammed Deif und anderen, genutzt worden sein, „um die operativen Aktivitäten der Hamas zu steuern“. Auch diese Angaben ließen sich nicht unabhängig prüfen.
UNO: Israel ordnet weitere Umsiedlungen in Chan Junis an
Donnerstag, 21. Dezember, 03.02 Uhr: Israel hat nach Angaben der Vereinten Nationen weitere großflächige Umsiedlungen der Stadt Chan Junis im Süden des Gazastreifens angeordnet. Das UN-Büro für die Koordinierung humanitärer Angelegenheiten (Ocha) erklärte, Israel habe am Mittwoch Karten veröffentlicht, in denen rund 20 Prozent des Stadtgebiets neu als zu räumendes Gebiet ausgewiesen würden.
In dem Gebiet lebten vor Beginn der Kämpfe zwischen Israel und der islamistischen Palästinenserorganisation Hamas nach Angaben der UNO mehr als 110.000 Menschen. Außerdem befanden sich in dem Gebiet 32 Notunterkünfte, in denen mehr als 140.00 Binnenflüchtlinge lebten, die meisten von ihnen aus dem Norden des Gazastreifens.
Die israelischen Streitkräfte erklärten derweil, am Mittwoch seien mit Bodentruppen, aus der Luft und vom Meer aus Angriffe gegen „dutzende Terroristen und Terroristen-Infrastruktur“ in Chan Junis ausgeführt worden.
Alle Entwicklungen zum Angriffskrieg in Israel lesen Sie auf den nächsten Seiten.
