Situation at a glance: Israel’s sharp warning to the Houthis – new rocket fire

While Israel’s military continued to engage in fierce fighting with the Islamist Hamas in the north of the Gaza Strip at the end of the year, the army said its air defense intercepted another rocket fired from Yemen. Hundreds of thousands of people rushed to the bunkers shortly before midnight as sirens wailed in the coastal metropolis of Tel Aviv and other places in central Israel.

It was said that the bullet was intercepted outside Israel’s borders. According to local media, rocket debris did not cause any major damage, but a large fragment struck a road in a town near Jerusalem.

According to emergency services Magen David Adom, a pedestrian was hit by a car and slightly injured as he rushed to a shelter, the Times of Israel reported. The pro-Iranian Houthi militia, which Israel shells almost daily from Yemen, confirmed the attack. Shortly before, Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon had warned the militia against further attacks.

Heavy fighting again in northern Gaza

Then the same “miserable fate” awaits them as Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah in Lebanon or the recently overthrown Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, Danon said before a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York. He threatened Iran with further Israeli air strikes.

Meanwhile, fighting in the northern Gaza Strip continued unabated. Almost 15 months after the start of the war, the Israeli military wants to break the last resistance of the Hamas terrorists there. Both war opponents reported successes against the fighters of the other side.

Hamas said on the Telegram channel of the Al-Qassam Brigades – the military wing of the Islamist organization – that an armored vehicle belonging to the Israeli army was destroyed in Beit Hanun and an unspecified number of Israeli soldiers were killed and wounded. Five more Israeli soldiers were also killed in another attack in Jabalia. Hamas’ statements could not be independently verified.

WHO chief calls for release of hospital director

For its part, the Israeli military announced that it had killed and captured “several terrorists” during a night operation near Jabalia as they attempted to “escape, engage in deception and set up ambushes.” The action came after a targeted operation against a Hamas command center in the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia. According to the Israeli army, “more than 240 terrorists” were arrested and 20 were “eliminated”.

The head of the clinic is among those arrested. The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, demanded that Hussam Abu Safeia be released immediately. The army accused Hamas of using the clinic for military purposes and as a hiding place. Meanwhile, Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah said another baby in Gaza had died of hypothermia.

Israel: Hamas video shows explosives planted near clinic

The Israeli military, meanwhile, released footage shot by Hamas militants showing Hamas terrorists planting explosives about 45 meters from the Indonesian hospital in the northern Gaza Strip. The army found the film material. It is another example of how Hamas abuses civilian facilities. This information could not initially be independently verified.

The Israeli army said it completed an operation in the area of ​​the Indonesian hospital last week. Terrorists who tried to escape from the hospital were “eliminated”. Dozens more have been arrested. Explosives planted in adjacent areas have been defused. Israel’s army repeatedly attacks hospitals in Gaza on the grounds that Hamas positions, weapons depots and fighters are located there.

According to the Israeli army, one soldier was killed and three others were seriously injured in the fighting in northern Gaza. No further details were given. According to the army, 824 soldiers have been killed so far in the attack by Hamas and other extremists from the Gaza Strip on Israel with 1,200 dead and 250 abducted on October 7, 2023 and in the fighting that followed.

According to the Hamas-controlled health authority, more than 45,500 Palestinians have been killed and more than 108,100 others injured in the Gaza Strip since the war began. The information, which can hardly be verified independently, does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.