The Palestine Chronology

In the West Bank, Israeli settlers shot and injured a Palestinian during a raid in Surif. Israeli forces shoot and kill a Palestinian child and injure 7 others during a raid in Bayt Rima. Israeli forces also shoot and injure 2 Palestinians with live ammunition during a raid in Balata refugee camp. Elsewhere, Israeli forces shoot and injure a 12-year-old boy during a raid in Ya’bad. Israeli forces also shoot and injure a Palestinian at a checkpoint near Nablus. In Gaza, Israeli forces bomb Khan Yunis, Jabalia refugee camp, Dayr al-Balah, Nuseirat refugee camp, and al-Bureij refugee camp, killing at least 162 people and attacking the Palestinian Red Crescent Society’s headquarters in Khan Yunis for the fourth day in a row. Israeli forces also withdraw from the Gaza City neighborhoods of Daraj and Tuffah after spending 10 days demolishing homes and cemeteries. Israel says it attacked more than 100 targets in Gaza overnight. Rockets fired from Gaza cause damage in Sderot. In Lebanon, 8 rockets are fired at Kiryat Shimona, no damage was reported. Rockets fired from Lebanon also target 2 Israeli military bases. Israeli forces attack Aita al-Shaab and Majdal Zoun. (AJ, AP, HA, UNOCHA, WAFA, WAFA, WAFA, WAFA, WAFA, WAFA, WAFA, WAFA, WAFA 1/5)

More than 22,600 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, including at least 8,800 children and 6,300 women, and around 57,910 have been injured since 10/7. At least 7,000 people are missing in rubble, including 1,700 children. 319 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 10/7, including 81 children. More than 3,949 people have been injured. Israel reports that 1,139 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed and 5,400 have been injured since 10/7, including Israeli soldiers. In addition, 173 Israeli soldiers have been killed and 1,020 injured in Gaza since the ground invasion began on 10/27. Over 1.93 million Palestinians, nearly 85% of the population of Gaza, have been displaced since 10/7. There has been a complete electricity blackout in Gaza since 10/12 due to the Israeli blockade. As of 12/23, at least 65,000 housing units had been destroyed and 290,000 had been damaged in Israeli airstrikes since 10/7, constituting over 60% of all housing units. 80 trucks carrying aid enter Gaza via the Rafah and Karim Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossings. France and Jordan jointly airdrop aid to Gaza from 2 C-130 transport planes. UNRWA appeals for more basic supplies, saying it does not have diapers for babies being sheltered in its facilities. (AJ, AP, REU, UNOCHA, UNOCHA 1/5)

UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths says in a statement that people in Gaza “are facing the highest level of food insecurity ever recorded” and that Gaza has “become a place of death and despair.” (AJ, AP, UNOCHA 1/5; HA, WAFA 1/6)

Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh issues a video message to U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken, saying he hopes the U.S. has learned lessons from its mistakes in the past 3 months and will working toward ending the occupation. Blinken arrives in Turkey, the first stop on his Middle East visit where according to the State Department he will work toward the protection of civilians in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank, freeing more captives, getting more aid into Gaza, ensuring Palestinians in Gaza are not forcibly displaced, deter Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, reduce tensions at the Blue Line, and takes steps toward creating a Palestinian state. (AJ, HA 1/5)

PA foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki speaks with UK foreign secretary David Cameron. According to a PA statement, Cameron condemns comments made by Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir in favor of the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza. Scottish first minister Humza Yousaf calls Smotrich and Ben-Gvir’s statements “the textbook definition of ethnic cleansing.” (AJ, HA, WAFA 1/5; AJ, HA 1/6)

Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah gives a speech warning that if Hezbollah does not respond to the assassination of Hamas deputy political leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut then all of Lebanon will be exposed to Israeli attacks. Nasrallah says Hezbollah has attacked Israel 670 times since 10/8. (AJ, AJ, HA, NYT 1/5)

The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation reports that the PA is working with South Africa on the genocide case against Israel at the ICJ in which hearings will begin next week. (AJ 1/5)

Rwanda, Chad, and the Democratic Republic of Congo deny reports by the Israeli publication Zman Yisrael that they have discussed receiving Palestinians from Gaza. (AJ 1/5; AJ 1/6)

Family members of 6 Israelis held captive in Gaza meet with Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani in Doha, discussing the lack of progress in negotiating their release. According to Axios, Al Thani tells the families that Israel’s assassination of Saleh al-Arouri has made the negotiations harder. Al Thani also speaks with Lebanese caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati, discussing Israel’s effort to drag Lebanon into war with Israel. (AJ 1/5; AX 1/6)

In the West Bank, Israeli forces demolish a Palestinian residential structure in Suba village near Hebron and deliver a stop-work order to a Palestinian home under construction outside Yatta. Unidentified assailants throw rocks at an Israeli settler vehicle driving near Ramallah, causing minor damage and lightly injuring 1 settler. IDF troops arrest 14 Palestinians during late-night raids in and around Tulkarm, Qalqilya, Hebron, Tubas, and Nablus; and patrol near Qalqilya, Tulkarm and Nablus. In East Jerusalem, Israeli police disperse a small protest against the detention of the PA’s governor of Jerusalem, Adnan Ghaith, outside a police station near the Old City; several Palestinians are arrested. Israeli forces also arrest a Palestinian during a raid in the Old City. (TOI, WAFA 11/27; MNA 11/28; PCHR 11/29)

Haaretz reports that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is planning to lay off more than half of its employees in the West Bank and Gaza in the coming weeks, following U.S. president Trump’s decision to slash U.S. aid to the Palestinians earlier this year. (HA, TOI 11/27)

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announces that the prime minister is planning to visit Chad soon to re-establish diplomatic ties. The announcement comes hours after Netanyahu meets with Chadian president Idriss Déby in Jerusalem. “The two discussed shared threats and the struggle against terrorism, increased cooperation between the nations in the areas of agriculture, counter terrorism, border security, technology, solar energy, water, health and more,” the prime minister’s office statement reads. (HA, JP, TOI 11/27)

Czech president Milos Zeman formally inaugurates the new Czech House, a cultural center in Jerusalem that he has described as the “first step” toward moving the Czech embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. In a joint press conference with Zeman, Israeli prime minister Netanyahu says, “We have no greater friend than the Czech Republic in the eastern hemisphere.” (HA, JP, TOI 11/27)

In a wide-ranging interview with the Washington Post, U.S. president Donald Trump says that Israel is the “one reason for the U.S. to remain in the Middle East.” He is responding to a question about the future of the U.S. military presence in the Middle East specifically. “Oil is becoming less and less of a reason because we’re producing more oil now than we’ve ever produced.” Meanwhile, Israeli ambassador to the UN Danny Danon says that the Trump administration is planning to release its long-awaited plan for Palestinian-Israeli peace in early 2019. (WP, YA 11/27; HA, MNA, MNA, TOI 11/28)

The Israeli authorities announce the seizure of 66 acres of Catholic Church-owned land in the northern Jordan Valley for “military purposes.” In response, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem says, “The Patriarchate is looking into the aspects of this decision in order to address it in the appropriate manner, have it contested and to stop further damage.” (MNA 11/27; FMEP 12/7)