Israeli forces storm besieged Gaza hospital

Jodie Ginsberg, the president of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), has told Al Jazeera from New York that Israel’s war on Gaza is unprecedented in terms of the threat to journalists. Here is some highlights from her interview:

• We documented 77 journalists killed in the Israel-Gaza war. Seventy-two of those are Palestinians. Gaza’s journalists are the only journalists able to report on what’s happening inside Gaza. International journalists have not been able to get in, except for very controlled trips that have been overseen by the Israeli army.
• It is sadly unsurprising that we’ve seen hesitancy to come out publicly in support of our journalist colleagues in Gaza, who are doing work that the international journalistic community is entirely reliant on to bring it the information to bring the public information about the war inside Gaza.
• I am disappointed frankly at the lack of public solidarity that we’ve seen. I think it is really important that we let our colleagues inside Gaza and also in the region know that we stand with them.
  

  As Gaza killings rise, so does toll on Palestinian journalists

  The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said 99 journalists and media workers worldwide were killed while doing their job last year.

  In its annual report, the media watchdog group said “the vast majority (72) were Palestinian journalists killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza”.

  The overall toll is the highest since 2015 and an increase of nearly 44 percent on 2022’s figures.

  “In December 2023, CPJ reported that more journalists were killed in the first three months of the Israel-Gaza war than have ever been killed in a single country over an entire year,” it said.

  Al Jazeera cameraperson Samer Abudaqa was killed on December 15 in an Israeli air strike on Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.

  The CPJ said it has raised concerns about the apparent targeting of media members by the Israeli army and is investigating whether a dozen journalists killed in the war were deliberately targeted by Israeli soldiers. It also underlined that the Israeli military has a long record of killing journalists with impunity, with at least 20 journalists killed over 22 years and no one held accountable for their deaths.

  More on the air raids in Nuseirat camp

  Al Jazeera’s correspondents on the ground have said the death toll after Israel carried out an intense bombardment of Nuseirat camp, in the central part of the Gaza Strip, now stands at at least 12.

  Seven children were confirmed to have been killed in the air raids.

  Which countries have stopped supplying arms to Israel?

  Civilian casualties continue to mount in Gaza – currently standing at more than 28,000 people killed and thousands more trapped under rubble and presumed dead in just four months of bombardments and a ground invasion.

  The rising death toll is prompting international condemnation from humanitarian and civil society groups in the form of statements, protests and lawsuits filed against countries alleged to be providing military support to Israel.

  Some countries are responding to this pressure.

  Israeli attack drones terrorise women, children evacuating from Nasser Hospital

  There is a devastating situation inside the Nasser Hospital.

  All the people inside the health facility, including patients and displaced people, are forced to leave the hospital through a narrow path that can fit one person at a time.

  Mass arrests are going on. Women and children are terrorised with attack drones which follow them and fire at them.

  There have been bodies in the courtyard of the hospital since early morning when the Israeli military stormed the hospital.

  Israeli army storms maternity building at Nasser Hospital: Ministry

  Gaza’s Ministry of Health has said in a statement that the Israeli army stormed the maternity building at the Nasser Medical Complex, as it continues a raid on southern Gaza’s largest health facility.

  The ministry added that the military destroyed two ambulances inside the compound.

  Lebanon marks ‘deadliest day’ amid signs of widening Israel-Hezbollah conflict

  At least 12 air raids have hit the Wadi Saluki area of southern Lebanon, an area known to be a Hezbollah stronghold.

  Israel has stepped up its attacks south of the Litani River. Hezbollah says it is preparing for a widening of this conflict as both sides are pushing deeper into each other’s territory.

  In the past, what was being hit was military targets, but now, we’re getting civilian casualties. At least 10 civilians and three Hezbollah members have been killed in a single day, marking the deadliest day for civilians since the war in Gaza sparked a new round of confrontations between Israel and Hezbollah.

  The conflict is widening but a full-blown war will not be an easy decision to make.