• Tel Aviv confirms detention of Kamal Adwan hospital chief
• 3 rockets fired towards Israel
• UN warns of shelter needs after hypothermia deaths in Palestinian enclave

CAIRO: Israel carried out airstrikes on dozens of Hamas targets in Gaza over the past 24 hours, it said on Friday, pressing attacks that Palestinian health authorities said had killed more than 110 people in two days.

The surge in operations and casualties comes amid a renewed push to reach a ceasefire agreement in the 15-month-old war before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan 20. Israeli mediators were dispatched on Thursday to resume talks in Doha brokered by Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

The Gaza health ministry said more than 40 people were killed on Friday after 71 were killed a day earlier, including in Al-Mawasi, an area in central Gaza previously declared a humanitarian safe zone by Israeli authorities.

The Israeli military said it had hit around 40 Hamas gathering points as well as command and control centres.

On Friday, the military told civilians in the area of al-Bureij in central Gaza to evacuate ahead of an operation it ordered following rocket attacks from the area. It said residents should move to the humanitarian zone for their own safety.

Abu Safiya in Israel’s custody

Israel has confirmed it is holding Kamal Adwan hospital director Dr Hussam Abu Safiya after earlier telling a local NGO that it was unaware of his case, sparking concern for his well-being, according to BBC.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) statement said he was “currently being investigated by Israeli security forces” in person. The statement did not offer an explanation for the confusion but repeated that he was suspected of being a “terrorist” and for “holding a rank” in Hamas.

Dr Abu Safiya was arrested as the Israeli military forced patients and medical staff to leave Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza last Friday.

On Thursday, the IDF told Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) that it had “no indication of the arrest or detention of the individual in question”.

The PHRI filed a petition with the Israeli High Court of Justice on Thursday, demanding Dr Abu Safiya’s location be disclosed. It said the court had given the IDF a week to comply.

Meanwhile, Amnesty head Agnès Callamard said Israeli authorities must “urgently disclose his whereabouts”. She said Israel had detained “hundreds of Palestinian healthcare workers from Gaza without charge or trial” and said they had been “subjected to torture and other ill-treatment and been held in incommunicado detention”.

Rockets fired

Israel said three rockets were fired toward its territory on Friday from the Gaza Strip. The rockets were the latest in a spate of recent launches from the devastated Palestinian territory, with Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warning of even more intense retaliatory strikes if they continued.

The military said one of Friday’s rockets “fell adjacent to the community of Nir Am and the second projectile fell in an open area”. Earlier in the day, it said another rocket fired from Gaza had triggered sirens near Beeri.

No injuries were reported from the launches.

Shelter needs

The UN on Friday decried that infants and others were freezing to death in Gaza, where it said an estimated 945,000 people still need help to shelter from winter conditions.

With children dying of hypothermia, the United Nations’ migration agency said it was deeply alarmed by the “devastating impact” of winter rains and freezing temperatures on displaced Palestinians, which were “adding to the unparallelled humanitarian catastrophe” in the Gaza Strip.

Heavy rains and flooding have overwhelmed displacement sites and makeshift shelters, while families are left exposed to harsh conditions, struggling to repair tents damaged from months of use, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said.

“Vulnerable people, including at least seven infants, have died from hypothermia, and these tragic deaths underscore the urgent need for shelter and other help to get to the people of Gaza immediately,” said IOM director general Amy Pope.

The agency said access constraints had “severely hindered” aid delivery, with only 285,000 people receiving shelter support since last September.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2025