Gaza civil defence says Israeli attacks kill 13

Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli attacks in the Palestinian territory killed at least 13 people, including five children, despite a ceasefire that has largely halted the fighting.

Four people including three children were killed when a drone struck a tent sheltering displaced people in southern Gaza, agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.

In the north of Gaza, an 11-year-old girl was killed near the Jabalia refugee camp and a strike on a school killed one person, while a drone near Khan Younis in the south killed a man, the agency added.

Two more Gazans, including a child, were killed in other attacks, reported the agency, which operates under Hamas authority.

When asked by AFP, the Israeli military said it was checking the reports.

Later, four more people were killed in an Israeli air strike that targeted a house in an eastern area of Gaza City, Mr Bassal said, adding that rescue work to search for several people who were missing had begun.

"The death toll has risen to 13 as a result of Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip since this morning in a clear violation of the ceasefire agreement," Mr Bassal said.

Earlier, the Israeli military said a projectile was launched "from the area of Gaza City toward the State of Israel" but that it fell within Gaza.

"Shortly after, the (military) precisely struck the launch point," it said in a statement.

Since 10 October, a fragile US-sponsored truce in Gaza has largely halted the fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas, but both sides have alleged frequent ceasefire violations.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said that the strikes in Gaza "confirm the Israeli occupation's renunciation of its commitment to the ceasefire".

Israeli forces have killed at least 425 Palestinians in Gaza since the ceasefire took effect, according to Gaza's health ministry.

At least 21 people were killed on 22 November in Israeli strikes, making it one of the deadliest days in Gaza since the ceasefire came into effect.

The Israeli military said militants have killed three of its soldiers during the same period.

Watchdog slams advancement of major West Bank settlement project

An Israeli settlement watchdog has denounced the government's publishing of a tender for the construction of some 3,400 housing units in a major new settlement project in the occupied West Bank.

In August, Israel gave the green light to E1, a new construction project covering some 12 square kilometres to the east of Jerusalem.

The E1 plan has been condemned by several international leaders, with the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres's spokesman saying it would pose an "existential threat" to a contiguous Palestinian state.

The move would further separate east Jerusalem, occupied and annexed by Israel and predominantly inhabited by Palestinians, from the West Bank.

The Israel Land Authority published the tender to build 3,401 housing units in the E1 area on its website in December.

"In an alarming display of political recklessness, the Israeli government continues to undermine any prospect for a political solution and a better future for both Israelis and Palestinians," NGO Peace Now said in a statement this week.

"Construction in E1 is intended to create irreversible facts on the ground, leading to a one-state reality, which all indications suggest would take the form of an apartheid regime."

Excluding east Jerusalem, some 500,000 Israelis live in settlements throughout the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967. About three million Palestinian residents live in the territory.

All Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.

In 2025, the expansion of Israeli settlements reached its highest level since at least 2017, when the United Nations began tracking such data, according to a report by the global body's chief, Mr Guterres.

Israel approved 19 settlements in December, a move far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said was aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Three arrested after settler attack near Palestinian village

Israeli forces arrested three suspects after dozens of Israeli settlers stormed an area near a West Bank village today , injuring two Palestinians and vandalising property, the military said.

The army said soldiers were dispatched after receiving news of "dozens of masked Israeli suspects vandalising property in the area" of Shavei Shomron, an Israeli settlement near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

The settlers "set Palestinian vehicles on fire" and "attacked a Palestinian who was inside one of the vehicles," the army said, adding that two Palestinians were injured as a result.

"Soldiers apprehended three suspects", and security forces were searching the area, the statement added.

Hussein Hammadi, mayor of the Palestinian village of Beit Lid near where the incident took place, said that the settlers attacked the main road passing near his village.

"Three cars were set on fire. A deaf person was seriously injured, and there were injuries caused by tear gas," Hammadi said.

The whole incident lasted over an hour before Israeli forces dispersed the assailants with tear gas, Hammadi said.

"We demand that the security and law-enforcement authorities bring this violent handful to justice", said Yossi Dagan, president of the northern West Bank Settlements Council, in a statement.