• Israeli forces have killed at least seven Palestinians in Gaza, including a child, and wounded 20 others.

Palestinians return to Gaza through Rafah crossing

A new group of Palestinians crossed into Egypt’s Rafah border on their way back to the Gaza Strip, arriving by bus and greeted by relatives with music, flowers and tearful embraces after sometimes years of separation

An Egyptian government statement said procedures were underway to process the group ahead of their return, with Egyptian Red Crescent volunteers coordinating with authorities, distributing “return kits,” and providing psychological support to children.

Red Crescent teams stationed on the Egyptian side of Rafah have also been distributing winter clothing and hygiene supplies and assisting with family reunifications, the statement said.

Egyptian authorities are separately preparing to receive a new group of wounded and sick Palestinians for treatment, after the health ministry set up a medical point at the crossing to triage patients before transferring them by ambulance to hospitals across Egypt.

Among those returning was a woman in her sixties who was being treated for injuries sustained in the war in Egypt, who told Al Jazeera: “Today I am overjoyed, two and a half years we hadn’t seen them, wherever we want to go, wherever we travel, we want to return to Gaza.”

Israeli forces wound and arrest young Palestinian at Bethlehem checkpoint

The Palestinian Wafa news agency reports that a young man was wounded by live Israeli fire before being arrested at a military checkpoint connecting Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

Emergency medical crews treated the young Palestinian for a gunshot wound at the scene. However, Israeli soldiers forced the paramedics to transfer the wounded man to the checkpoint, where he was subsequently arrested from inside the ambulance, according to Wafa.

Developments in the occupied West Bank

Direct military confrontations between the US and Iran have escalated dramatically over the last 24 hours, holding global attention, but attacks on the occupied West Bank by the Israeli military and settlers continue.

• Israeli forces have been conducting raids in several areas of Hebron since early dawn.
• Israeli settlers chased Palestinian herders and their sheep from grazing lands in the Rujum Ali area of Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.
• Israeli forces carried out widespread raids overnight and into the morning in Jenin, Qalqilya, Nablus, Jericho, Tulkarem, Hebron, and occupied East Jerusalem.
• In Jenin, troops arrested the father of slain Palestinian Nour al-Din Fayad after raiding the family home in Wadi Burqin, near Nablus; undercover forces also made an arrest in Silat al-Harithiya.
• Detentions were reported in Qalqilya and at the Qalandiya checkpoint, while Israeli forces raided Aqabat Jabr refugee camp in Jericho.
• Israeli forces stormed the al-Ein refugee camp near Nablus before dawn on Wednesday, raiding several Palestinian homes.
• A Palestinian man was shot in the thigh with live ammunition by Israeli forces at Checkpoint 300, between Bethlehem and occupied East Jerusalem, and then arrested.
• Israeli settlers uprooted electricity poles in the Ras al-Ain spring area west of Qusra, south of Nablus, damaging local Palestinian infrastructure.

UN commission demands Israel release detained Gaza hospital director

A United Nations commission has demanded the immediate and unconditional release of Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, warning that his deteriorating health is the direct result of severe abuse suffered during his 19-month detention by Israeli authorities.

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel said in statement that Dr. Abu Safiya, who was detained in December 2024, has been subjected to continuous mistreatment that likely amounts to international crimes. The panel also called for the release of all other Palestinian healthcare professionals currently held in arbitrary detention.

“The military operations against medical personnel were found to be part of a concerted policy to destroy the health-care system of Gaza,” reiterating its previous findings that the targeting of the medical sector constitutes war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of genocide.

The commission urged Israel to grant Dr. Abu Safiya immediate, independent medical care.

Israel has previously denied targeting medical personnel and facilities systematically, accusing militants of operating from within healthcare infrastructure.

Dr. Abu Safiya was detained by the Israeli military during a raid on the Beit Lahia hospital on December 27, 2024 and has since been held without charge or trial.

Eight Palestinians killed in Gaza

Eight Palestinians were killed and 17 wounded in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, as Israeli forces continued military operations across the enclave.

In its daily report, the ministry said a number of victims remain trapped under rubble and on roadsides, with emergency and civil defense teams still unable to reach them.

The latest figures bring the total death toll since a ceasefire took effect on October 11, 2025, to 1,084, with 3,491 people wounded and 799 bodies retrieved during that period, according to the ministry.

Scores of settlers storm the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound under police protection

More than 100 settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Wednesday through the Mughrabi Gate, touring its courtyards, Wafa news agency reports.

The settlers performed “Talmudic rituals”, according to Wafa, before leaving through the Chain Gate.

Arab League chief says blocked by Israel from visiting occupied West Bank

The new secretary-general of the Arab League, Nabil Fahmy, says Israel had blocked him from visiting Ramallah, in what would have been his first foreign trip since taking office this month.

The regional bloc’s secretariat was informed by Palestinian authorities “of the Israeli occupation authorities’ rejection of a visit… to the occupied Palestinian territories” to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, Fahmy’s office said in a statement.

Abbas’s administration governs parts of the occupied West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

Since Israel’s genocide began in 2023, the occupied West Bank has been rocked by Israeli military raids, deadly settler attacks and the expansion of settlements, which are illegal under international law.

Fahmy said Palestinians in the territory “suffer siege in their towns and cities, surrounded by expanding settlements and settler-only roads, and are subjected to the brutality and terrorism of settlers who enjoy both the protection and encouragement of the occupying state”.

Community elders replace police to settle disputes in Gaza

Since the start of the war in 2023, Gaza’s civilian police force has come under sustained attack, weakening its capacity. Police vehicles have been destroyed and checkpoints abandoned by Gaza’s security forces.

“The Israeli army is heavily focusing on assassinating as many members of the Palestinian police as possible, with reports of more than 2,500 police personnel killed during the war of annihilation, in an effort to spread chaos, lawlessness, and destroy the social fabric in Gaza”, Ismail al-Thawabta, the spokesperson for Gaza’s Government Media Office, said.

As the police presence diminished, a security vacuum emerged in many areas in the strip. And with fewer law enforcement personnel in the streets, the locals have turned to alternatives to settle disputes and maintain order. Community elders are increasingly stepping in to resolve disputes and help maintain order, with clan leaders and mediators taking on a larger role in preserving social stability.

Among them is Tawfiq Shalat, a well-known mediator in central Gaza. He says he and other community figures have intervened in thousands of disputes since the war began. “Community leaders and mediators are always on high alert and resolve disputes as soon as they arise. During the war, the police were unable to deploy normally, and our role was to intervene, mediate and prevent conflicts from escalating,” Shalat said.

Community mediation is no longer the exception in Gaza. For a majority of people, it is now the first and often only path available to settle disputes in the devastated strip.