At least 46 Palestinians have been killed The attack on Israel across the Gaza Strip, while international mediators continued talks aimed at finding peace and a prisoner exchange.
Medical sources gave Al Jazeera the death toll on Wednesday in Gaza as Israeli forces carried out another series of attacks across the West Bank, killing three people.
At least 45,936 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian officials, and another 109,274 wounded since Israel began its war after the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas fighters in southern Israel. The attack killed at least 1,139 people, according to an Al Jazeera tally based on Israeli figures, and nearly 250 others were taken into captivity.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera's Tareq Abu Azzoum said most of the Israeli attacks on Wednesday took place in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, particularly around Gaza City.
An Israeli strike on a park in Gaza City killed five people and an attack on a refugee camp in Jabalia killed four, he said. In central Gaza, at least 10 people were killed in an attack on a family home in the Bureij refugee camp, including women and children, survivors said.
“There has been an increase in wind since this morning,” Abu Azzoum said, adding that the Israeli airstrike also injured four telecommunications workers working to maintain Internet calls in Gaza City.
“What we have seen in the last few hours is very serious, especially in Gaza City, which has been the source of military violence, especially in the most populated areas,” he said.
The hospitals are over
Rawya Taboura, a nurse at the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahiya, north of Gaza, told Al Jazeera that the hospital had been bombarded by Israeli bullets “targeting the hospital's fence and surrounding areas” and preventing aid.
Gaza's Ministry of Health said earlier this week that three major hospitals in northern Gaza are out of service due to the fighting, while the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Abu Safia, was detained by Israeli forces.
“Unfortunately, until now, no one has been able to provide help because of the problems that are happening outside the hospital and the failure to cooperate with the parties involved,” said Taboura.
“We were unable to provide treatment at the hospital,” he added. “Things in the hospital are very difficult.”
In the south, Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis announced it would close at 5pm (15:00 GMT) on Wednesday due to a lack of fuel, while Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Deir el-Balah said it was running out of medicine. and things.
On Wednesday, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) was among aid groups around the world calling for access to Gaza. Aid groups have repeatedly accused Israel of blocking aid.
The IFRC said the winter was “exacerbating the unpredictable conditions” in Gaza, with many families left “struggling to survive in makeshift camps, without even basic necessities, such as blankets”.
While the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), reported that at least 74 children were killed in Gaza in the first week of 2025, “suffering from torture, deprivation, and the worsening of the flu”.
The number included eight babies and infants who died of hypothermia in recent days.
More than a million children are among those who have fled Gaza, many of whom live in sheltered tents, the agency said.
'Serious crimes'
As the war escalates in Gaza, Israeli attacks have continued in the occupied West Bank.
On Wednesday, the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner's Society (PPS) said 45 Palestinians have been arrested since Tuesday night across the districts of Hebron, Nablus, Tubas, Tulkarem, Ramallah, and Jerusalem.
In Bethlehem, several teachers and students were injured after inhaling tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers at the Kisan school east of Bethlehem, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.
Tear gas is said to have responded to some students throwing stones at Israeli military vehicles.
Meanwhile, three Palestinians, including two children, were killed by Israeli airstrikes in the town of Tammun on Wednesday in Tubas district.
The children killed were identified as nine-year-old Rida Bisharat and 10-year-old Hamza Bisharat by the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It also said that the strike was a “heinous crime”.
The ministry also said that “Israel's use of aggression in the West Bank” was a “violation of international law and the Geneva Conventions”.
Negotiations on the cessation of hostilities continue
As the war continued, negotiators from Qatar, Egypt, and the United States were moving forward with efforts to end the agreement between Israel and Hamas, which has seen the end of the war and the exchange of Israeli prisoners held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners who were in 'Israeli prisons.
Speaking in Paris, France on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted that the agreement was “very close”.
However, previous attempts to investigate have repeatedly failed, with Hamas and Israel accusing each other of changing the wording.
Washington has also been criticized for not putting more pressure on its “ironclad” ally Israel, to which it provides billions of dollars in military aid.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump's Middle East appointee, Steve Witkoff, on Tuesday said he will travel to Doha, Qatar to participate in the talks. He said he hoped a deal could be reached before Trump takes office on January 20.
For his part, speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Mr. Trump he told reporters that “all hell will break loose” if an agreement is not reached by the time he takes office. He declined to elaborate on what it meant, or whether it would mean an increase in US involvement in the war.
Later on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the bodies of the two hostages, Youssef and Hamza Ziyadne, had been found in Gaza.