Israel-Hamas war live: Another deadly night amid Israeli attacks
from thefreeonline on 4 Dec 2023 By Virginia Pietromarchi, Stephen Quillen and Edna Mohamed at Al Jazeera
- Israel’s military widens its ground offensive in southern Gaza as Palestinian officials say more than 800 people killed since Saturday.
- Israeli forces arrest more Palestinians in overnight and early morning raids across the occupied West Bank.
51 Updates
Over 700 killed in last 24 hours as Israel intensifies strikes
The Israeli army has ordered more people to evacuate from southern Gaza, which was earlier declared ‘safe zone’.
Hundreds more Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air raids in the past 24 hours in Gaza as the Israeli army ordered more areas in and around the enclave’s second-largest city of Khan Younis to evacuate.
The Director General of the Government Media Office in Gaza told Al Jazeera on Sunday that more than 700 Palestinians have been killed since Israel resumed bombardment after a seven-day truce ended on Friday.
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Analysis: Israel resumed bombing Gaza, what has happened since?
More than 1.5 million people have been displaced, most of them from northern Gaza, since Israel launched a military offensive on October 7 in the wake of a deadly Hamas attack.
Overnight and into Sunday, intense bombing was reported in Khan Younis, Rafah, and some northern parts targeted by Israel’s air and ground attacks.
“Everywhere you turn to, there are children with third-degree burns, shrapnel wounds, brain injuries and broken bones,” James Elder, UNICEF’s global spokesperson, told Al Jazeera from Gaza.
“Mothers crying over children who look like they are hours away from death. It seems like a death zone right now.”
The main hospital in Khan Younis received at least three dead and dozens wounded on Sunday morning from an Israeli air raid that hit a residential building in the eastern part of the city, according to an Associated Press journalist at the hospital.
Separately, the bodies of 31 people killed in Israeli bombardment across the central areas of the strip were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Gaza’s central city of Deir el-Balah, said Omar al-Darawi, an administrative employee at the hospital.
In northern Gaza, rescue teams with little equipment scrambled on Sunday to dig through the rubble of buildings in the Jabaliya refugee camp and other neighbourhoods in Gaza City in search of potential survivors and dead bodies.
Hopes of any future cessation in the fighting were dashed on Saturday when Israel announced it was pulling out negotiators from the Qatari capital, Doha, saying talks had reached an “impasse”.
At least 60 Palestinians arrested in the occupied West Bank
At least 60 Palestinians, including former prisoners, have been detained in Israeli forces’ raids in the occupied West Bank overnight and this morning.
In a statement, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said that some of the arrests were concentrated in the Dheisheh camp in Bethlehem, while the rest were distributed across the occupied West Bank.
Some of those arrested were later released.
Since October 7, more than 3,540 Palestinians have been arrested in the occupied West Bank.
As our colleague Hoda Abdel-Hamid reported earlier, raids took place across the occupied territories last night, including in Qalqilya, where two Palestinians were killed.
14m ago
(09:55 GMT)
Row over gun permits to Israeli civilians deepens
The head of Firearms Licensing Department has quit his post after learning that Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s staff issued gun permits to Israeli citizens without proper training.
Yisrael Avisar was head of the department responsible for issuing gun permits. During a Knesset hearing, he said that Ben-Gvir’s staff were given the title of “temporary licensing official” after one day of training that usually lasts at least a month, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.
Citing security sources, Haaretz said firearm licenses were granted to people not meeting the criteria, including mental and physical health requirements.
“They are handing out guns like candy,” a security official told Haaretz.
Ben-Gvir defended his weapons distribution policy as “clear and continuous”.
Since October 7, Ben-Gvir and Netanyahu have encouraged the arming of civilians. According to Channel 13 TV, there have been 150,000 applications for gun licenses since the war started – compared to 42 applications the same period last year.
What areas in Gaza has Israel targeted today?
Overnight and early morning Israeli attacks have hit homes, commercial centres and hospitals across the north, centre and south of Gaza.
Here are some of those areas in Gaza that have come under Israeli attacks today:
- Shujayea and Tuffah neighbourhoods, east of Gaza City
- Mosque in Zeitoun neighbourhood, east of Gaza City
- Homes and central square in Gaza City
- Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza
- Entrance of Kamal Adwan Hospital, northern Gaza
- Homes in Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoon, northern Gaza
- Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza
- Deir el-Balah, central Gaza
- Homes and a commercial centre in Khan Younis, southern Gaza
- At-Tannour neighbourhood, southern Gaza
- Al-Janina neighbourhood, southern Gaza
A Palestinian boy carrying a baby stands at a site of Israeli strikes in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip [Mohammed Salem/Reuters]
The Free 
Ahhhh injured babies in war. Such a nice propaganda.
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