Two Christian women – an elderly mother and her daughter – were shot dead by an Israeli soldier on the grounds of a Catholic church in Gaza City, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem has said.
“Around noon [10:00 GMT] today … a sniper” of the Israeli army “murdered two Christian women inside the Holy Family Parish in Gaza” where Christian families have been sheltering since the Israel-Hamas war broke out, the patriarchate said in a statement on Saturday.
“Nahida and her daughter Samar were shot and killed as they walked to the Sister’s Convent. One was killed as she tried to carry the other to safety,” it said.
The patriarchate highlighted that no warning was given before the shooting started and added that “they were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the Parish, where there are no belligerents.”
Seven more people were also wounded by gunfire as they tried to protect others, the statement said.
“This is a targeted death campaign during the Christmas season on the world’s oldest Christian community,” Hammam Farah, Nahida and Samar’s family member, said in a statement on X.
This morning Israeli snipers shot and killed my two family friends in an attack on the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza.
Nahida (Um Emad Anton) and Samar, mother and daughter, were walking to the Sisters’ Convent to use the only bathroom.
Reporting from Rafah in southern Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said the church, which was accommodating Christians in Gaza, has been a target of direct Israeli bombardment over the past few days.
“Major parts of it have been destroyed. Snipers are shooting at every moving object in the yard,” he added.
In its statement, the patriarchate said three projectiles fired by an Israeli tank had also struck a convent of the Sisters of Mother Teresa charity, destroying its generator and fuel supplies, and rendering a building housing 54 disabled people uninhabitable.
“The 54 disabled persons are currently displaced and without access to the respirators that some of them need to survive,” it added.
According to the Vatican press agency, the strikes wounded three people.
“The 800 remaining Christians in Gaza are on the verge of extinction. They’ve made life very difficult for this community,” Mahmoud said.
Who are the Christians of Gaza?
Gaza’s Christians are one of the oldest communities in the Middle East, dating back to the first century.
However, the number of Christians in Gaza has dwindled in recent years. Today there are only approximately 1,000 left, a sharp drop from the 3,000 registered in 2007, when Hamas assumed complete control over the enclave.
According to Kamel Ayyad, a spokesperson for the Church of Saint Porphyrius, which was recently bombed by Israel, the majority of the population is from Gaza itself.
The rest arrived here after the creation of the state of Israel, which displaced about 700,000 Palestinians – an event they refer to as the Nakba, or “catastrophe”.
The Israeli blockade of Gaza following Hamas’s rise to power in 2007 accelerated the flight of Christians from the poverty-stricken enclave.
“It’s become very difficult for people to live here,” said Ayyad. “Many of the Christians left for the West Bank, for America, Canada or the Arab world, seeking better education and health.”
While most of Gaza’s Christians belong to the Greek Orthodox faith, smaller numbers worship at the Catholic Holy Family Church and the Gaza Baptist Church.
‘Living under siege’
After Saturday’s church attack, Italy’s top diplomat Antonio Tajani issued a “heartfelt appeal to the Israeli government and army to protect Christian places of worship”.
“That is not where the Hamas terrorists are hiding,” he said on X.
Under the recent Israeli bombardments, Christians and Muslims alike sought refuge at several churches in Gaza like Saint Porphyrius.
But after this church was bombed, they all moved to the nearby Holy Family Church, located 400 metres (1,300 feet) away, which has also been bombed now.
Israel has said it is looking into what happened at the Holy Family church on Saturday.
But living under siege, Christians in Gaza attest to a spirit of solidarity that has united faiths in their struggle for survival and their dream of freedom.
“We are all Palestinians. We live in the same city, with the same suffering,” said Ayyad.
Israel on Saturday mourned the deaths of three Gaza hostages killed when troops mistook them for a threat, with the military expressing remorse over a “tragic” incident that sparked protests in Tel Aviv.
Agence France-Presse reports that the Israeli army said Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer El-Talalqa – all aged in their 20s – were shot during operations in a neighbourhood of Gaza City.
The three were among an estimated 240 people taken hostage during Hamas’s 7 October raids into Israel, which also killed an estimated 1,200 people.
Israel Defense Forces spokesprtson, Daniel Hagari, said:
During combat in Shejaiya, the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat and as a result fired toward them and the hostages were killed.
The IDF expresses deep sorrow regarding this disaster and shares in the grief of the families.
Their bodies were transferred to Israel, and on examination were confirmed as being Haim, a 28-year-old heavy metal drummer, 25-year-old Bedouin man El-Talalqa and Shamriz, 26.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, described their deaths as an “unbearable tragedy”. “All of Israel is grieving their loss,” he said, while the White House called it a “tragic mistake”.
As news of the incident spread late on Friday, hundreds of people gathered at Israel’s ministry of defence in Tel Aviv to call on Netanyahu’s government to secure the release of more than 130 hostages Israel believes to still being held in Hamas-ruled territory.
The demonstrators waved Israeli flags and brandished placards. One message read:
Every day, a hostage dies.
Merav Svirsky, sister of Hamas-held hostage Itay Svirsky, said:
I am dying of fear. We demand a deal now.
Wherever trees have been left standing in Gaza, they are being chopped down for fuel. When wood – furniture and doors included – cannot be found, Gaza’s residents burn waste.
To cook or heat themselves, people in the Palestinian enclave are burning what they can find in crude stoves they have made of clay, scrap metal or loose bricks to replace kitchen cookers or gas stoves. Israel’s siege means it is no longer possible for people to find gas.
But finding fuel is a difficult task – it can take hours to find a tree to cut and transport home – and comes with health concerns about the smoke released, especially as so many are living in overcrowded conditions.
According to the World Food Progamme, 70% of displaced people in southern Gaza rely on firewood for fuel, but the number of those with no fuel at all has doubled over the past two weeks to 15%.
Nazmi Mwafi, a 23-year-old who uses social media app Snapchat to send out daily updates from Gaza, said finding wood for fuel in the colder weather is one of the biggest preoccupations people now have, and has been made more difficult by the dwindling number of trees.
“We cut any tree [we find], there’s no specific type. We use it to cook, to eat, we heat water with it to wash and to drink. So it’s a big task to go and get the wood,” said Mwafi.
“We go to the woods but it’s a very far distance to travel. It takes you hours, because you have to cut the trees, then you have to drag them a long way through sandy land until you reach a main road.”
Egyptian air defence shot down a suspected drone off the Red Sea coast near the resort town of Dahab on Egypt’s eastern Sinai coast, two security sources said.
The security sources said the drone’s origin was unknown, Reuters reported.
Witnesses in Dahab said they saw an object fall into the water. They said they saw another flying object fall in the nearby mountains.
In late October, drones caused explosions that rocked two other Red Sea towns, which Israel said Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi movement sent them to strike its territory.
Israel has said it is opening a military police investigation into the killing of two Palestinians in the West Bank after an Israeli human rights group posted videos that appeared to show Israeli troops killing the men – one who was incapacitated and the second unarmed – during a military raid in a West Bank refugee camp.
The B’Tselem human rights group accused the army of carrying out a pair of “illegal executions”.
The security camera videos show two Israeli military vehicles pursuing a group of Palestinians in the Faraa refugee camp in the northern West Bank. One man, who appears to be holding a red canister, is gunned down by soldiers. B’Tselem identified the man as 25-year-old Rami Jundob.
The military Jeep then approaches Jundob as he lies bleeding on the ground and fires multiple shots at him until he is still. Soldiers then approach a man identified by B’Tselem as 36-year-old Thaar Shahin as he cowers underneath the hood of a car. They shoot at him from close range.
B’Tselem said that Shahin was killed instantly and Jundob died of his wounds the next day.
A prolonged communications blackout that severed telephone and internet connections compounded the misery on Saturday in the besieged Gaza Strip, where a United Nations agency said hunger levels had spiralled in recent days.
Internet and telephone lines went down on Thursday evening and were still inaccessible on Saturday morning, according to internet access advocacy group NetBlocks.org, hampering aid deliveries and rescue efforts as Israel’s war against Gaza’s ruling militant group Hamas stretched into the 11th week.
“The internet blackout is ongoing, and based on our records it is the longest such incident,” in the over-two-month war, said Alp Toker, the group’s director.
The United Nations’ humanitarian affairs department said communications with Gaza were “severely disrupted” due to damage to telecommunications lines in the south, according to an AP report.
More is in on Iran’s official Irna news agency reporting that an agent of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service was executed on Saturday in Iran.
Reuters reports the news agency said the person, who it did not name, “communicated with foreign services, specifically Mossad, collecting classified information, and with participation with associates, provided documents to foreign services, including the Mossad”.
Irna said the accused had handed classified information to a “Mossad officer” with the aim of “propaganda for groups and organisations opposed to the Islamic Republic”.
It did not say where the alleged handover had taken place.
It was not clear when the person was arrested, but Irna said an appeal had been rejected.
The execution, which took place in a Zahedan jail in south-eastern Sistan-Baluchestan province, came a day after Baluch militants attacked a police station in the province, killing 11 security personnel and wounding several others.
Dozens of Palestinians were killed in Gaza on Saturday in airstrikes by Israel, Palestinian media said, after the US urged Israel to scale down its military campaign and narrowly target Hamas leaders.
At least 14 people died from airstrikes that hit two houses on Old Gaza Street in Jabalia and dozens more were killed in a separate airstrike that hit another home in Jabalia, according to the official Palestinian Wafa news agency.
Reuters reports that Wafa also said a large number of civilians were trapped under rubble.
With intense ground fighting across the length of the Gaza Strip and aid organisations warning of a humanitarian catastrophe, the US has warned that Israel risks losing international support because of “indiscriminate” airstrikes killing Palestinian civilians.
President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, visiting Israel on Thursday and Friday, carried a message to Israel to scale down the broad military campaign and transition to more narrowly targeted operations against Hamas leaders, US officials said.
During Sullivan’s visit, Israeli officials publicly emphasised that they would continue the war until they achieve their aim of eradicating Hamas, which may take months.
Washington hinted on Friday at disagreement with Israel over how quickly to scale down the war, with Sullivan saying the timing was the subject of “intensive discussion” between the allies.
An Al Jazeera cameraman has been killed and the network’s chief Gaza correspondent wounded in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza, the network has said.
Cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa and correspondent Wael al-Dahdouh had gone to Farhana school in the southern city of Khan Younis after it was hit by a strike earlier in the day. While they were there, an Israeli drone hit the school with a second strike, the broadcaster said.
“The network holds Israel accountable for systematically targeting and killing their journalists and their families,” Al Jazeera said in a statement.
Following Samer’s injury he was left to bleed to death for over five hours, as Israeli forces prevented ambulances and rescue workers from reaching him, denying the much-needed emergency treatment.
Dahdouh was hit by shrapnel on his upper arm and managed to reach Nasser hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries, the network reported. The correspondent – whose wife, son, daughter and grandson were killed in an Israeli airstrike in October – said the Al Jazeera crew had been accompanying civil defence rescuers.
Al Jazeera’s managing editor, Mohamed Moawad, paid tribute to the cameraman on X (formerly Twitter), saying:
His unwavering commitment to truth and storytelling has left an indelible mark on our team.
The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, told a general assembly meeting on the war that Israel “targets those who could document [their] crimes and inform the world, the journalists”.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Abu Daqqa is the 64th journalist to be killed since the conflict erupted between Hamas and Israel – 57 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese journalists.
The CPJ called on international authorities to conduct an independent investigation into the incident “to hold the perpetrators to account”.
Iran’s official Irna news agency has reported that an agent of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service was executed on Saturday in Iran’s south-eastern Sistan-Baluchestan province.
Reuters quotes the news agency as saying:
This person communicated with foreign services, including Mossad, collecting classified information, and with participation with associates, provided documents to foreign services, including the Mossad.
Irna did not name the person.
Iran has executed an “agent of Israel’s Mossad” intelligence service, Reuters has reported in a quick snap, citing Iranian media.
More on that as it emerges.
Israel on Saturday mourned the deaths of three Gaza hostages killed when troops mistook them for a threat, with the military expressing remorse over a “tragic” incident that sparked protests in Tel Aviv.
Agence France-Presse reports that the Israeli army said Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer El-Talalqa – all aged in their 20s – were shot during operations in a neighbourhood of Gaza City.
The three were among an estimated 240 people taken hostage during Hamas’s 7 October raids into Israel, which also killed an estimated 1,200 people.
Israel Defense Forces spokesprtson, Daniel Hagari, said:
During combat in Shejaiya, the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat and as a result fired toward them and the hostages were killed.
The IDF expresses deep sorrow regarding this disaster and shares in the grief of the families.
Their bodies were transferred to Israel, and on examination were confirmed as being Haim, a 28-year-old heavy metal drummer, 25-year-old Bedouin man El-Talalqa and Shamriz, 26.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, described their deaths as an “unbearable tragedy”. “All of Israel is grieving their loss,” he said, while the White House called it a “tragic mistake”.
As news of the incident spread late on Friday, hundreds of people gathered at Israel’s ministry of defence in Tel Aviv to call on Netanyahu’s government to secure the release of more than 130 hostages Israel believes to still being held in Hamas-ruled territory.
The demonstrators waved Israeli flags and brandished placards. One message read:
Every day, a hostage dies.
Merav Svirsky, sister of Hamas-held hostage Itay Svirsky, said:
I am dying of fear. We demand a deal now.
Welcome to our continuing live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war. My name is Adam Fulton and here’s a rundown of the latest news.
Israel has said its troops killed three Israeli hostages in Gaza after mistaking them for a threat, with the armed forces expressing “deep remorse” over a “tragic incident” that sparked protests in Tel Aviv.
The Israeli military said Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer El-Talalqa – all aged in their 20s – were shot during fighting in Gaza City.
Hundreds of people later marched in Tel Aviv and gathered at Israel’s ministry of defence in protest, displaying placards with the faces of some of more than 130 people Israel believes to still be held by Hamas in Gaza and calling for their immediate release.
Meanwhile, an Al Jazeera cameraman was killed and the network’s chief Gaza correspondent wounded in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in the territory, the network has said.
The cameraman, Samer Abu Daqqa, was “left to bleed to death for over five hours as Israeli forces prevented ambulances and rescue workers from reaching him”, it said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Committee to Protect Journalists called on international authorities to conduct an independent investigation into the incident “to hold the perpetrators to account”.
More on those stories soon. In other developments as it turns 8am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv:
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, mournedthe three hostages killed by Israeli forces by mistake, saying on X (formerly Twitter): “Together with the entire people of Israel, I bow my head in deep sorrow and mourn the fall of three of our dear sons who were kidnapped.”
Israel reopened an aid crossing into the Gaza Strip on Friday after earlier approving the “temporary measure”. Netanyahu’s office said after weeks of pressure that the aid would be allowed to be delivered directly to Gaza through its Kerem Shalom border crossing.
Two of the world’s largest shipping firms, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, have said they are suspending passage through a Red Sea strait vital for global commerce after Yemeni rebel attacks in the area. The Iran-backed Houthis, who control much of Yemen but are not recognised internationally, say they are targeting shipping to pressure Israel during its war in Gaza.
The US should back the UN security council’s action to protect Gaza’s civilians, Human Rights Watch has said. HRW’s UN director, Louis Charbonneau, said on Friday that the US should act at the UN security council to “pressure Israel, as well as Palestinian armed groups, to comply with international humanitarian law and protect civilians”.
The German airline carrier Lufthansa has said it will resume flights to Tel Aviv starting on 8 January. In a statement released on Friday, Lufthansa said: “In a first phase, Lufthansa Airlines will initially offer four weekly flights from Frankfurt and three weekly flights from Munich. Austrian Airlines is planning eight weekly connections and SWISS five weekly flights.”
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees told the Global Refugee Forum that what continued to shock him was the “ever increasing level of dehumanisation” with the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Philippe Lazzarini said: “The fact that people can laugh, cheer and mock any type of wrongdoing that we observe in this war, when in fact what is happening in Gaza should outrage anyone, should make us all rethink our values… This is also a make or break moment for all of us and for our shared humanity.”
An 8,000-year-old relic found in the ocean off the coast of Naples has sparked a "mind-blowing" breakthrough that researchers say could mean more treasure being located. The discovery was made close to the island of Capri, a plush island in the Bay of Naples in southern Italy earlier this year.
Among the items found included a series of mysterious volcanic glass artifacts, which were located near the White Grotto - a cavern close to the island's famous Blue Grotto.
And researchers say that the remains of a Neolithic shipwreck dating back between 8,000 and 5,000 years could be located close to the White Grotto.
Naples Police Department, alongside marine archaeologists, worked to recover the objects from the water, which were made of obsidian - a black form of shiny volcanic glass.
According to the authorities, the most important find was retrieved on the seabed, with a weight approximately eight kilograms (17.6 pounds) and measuring around 28 x 20 x 15 centimetres (11 x 8 x 6 inches).
It was spotted at a depth of around 30 to 40 metres (98 to 132 feet) but remains a puzzle to baffled researchers who do not know what the item was used for.
Mariano Nuzzo, the superintendent of archaeology, fine arts, and landscape for the Naples metropolitan area, said last month: "It is necessary to carry out an extensive instrumental survey of the seabed to verify the possible presence of the hull or other cargo material."
Researchers are now hoping to find a Stone Age shipwreck in the water where the discoveries made in what would be a first for archaeologists.
Speaking to Newsweek, Sandro Barucci, a researcher and author, said "the remains of a Neolithic hull in Mediterranean waters have never been found to date".
He continued: "There are cases of Neolithic boats found on the European mainland or in freshwater, lakes, and rivers. But the Mediterranean Sea has a pleasant temperature and salinity for the wood-eating mollusk, Teredo navalis.
"Thus, wooden ships of all ages, when they sink in the Mediterranean, are prey for these mollusks."
The expert added: "At Capri, if the boat had sunk quickly into the sand and remained protected, it would perhaps be possible to find some wooden parts, especially if it were a dugout canoe – i.e. made from a single large hollowed-out tree trunk.
"But it would truly be a very rare event, indeed unique."
It remains unclear if there hull of the ship would ever be found.
However, in a bid to secure it, Nuzzo hinted that more explorations of the seabed could clarify how the objects were left on the seabed.
Israel on Saturday mourned the deaths of three Gaza hostages killed when troops mistook them for a threat, with the military expressing remorse over a “tragic” incident that sparked protests in Tel Aviv.
Agence France-Presse reports that the Israeli army said Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer El-Talalqa – all aged in their 20s – were shot during operations in a neighbourhood of Gaza City.
The three were among an estimated 240 people taken hostage during Hamas’s 7 October raids into Israel, which also killed an estimated 1,200 people.
Israel Defense Forces spokesprtson, Daniel Hagari, said:
During combat in Shejaiya, the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat and as a result fired toward them and the hostages were killed.
The IDF expresses deep sorrow regarding this disaster and shares in the grief of the families.
Their bodies were transferred to Israel, and on examination were confirmed as being Haim, a 28-year-old heavy metal drummer, 25-year-old Bedouin man El-Talalqa and Shamriz, 26.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, described their deaths as an “unbearable tragedy”. “All of Israel is grieving their loss,” he said, while the White House called it a “tragic mistake”.
As news of the incident spread late on Friday, hundreds of people gathered at Israel’s ministry of defence in Tel Aviv to call on Netanyahu’s government to secure the release of more than 130 hostages Israel believes to still being held in Hamas-ruled territory.
The demonstrators waved Israeli flags and brandished placards. One message read:
Every day, a hostage dies.
Merav Svirsky, sister of Hamas-held hostage Itay Svirsky, said:
I am dying of fear. We demand a deal now.
Israel has said it is opening a military police investigation into the killing of two Palestinians in the West Bank after an Israeli human rights group posted videos that appeared to show Israeli troops killing the men – one who was incapacitated and the second unarmed – during a military raid in a West Bank refugee camp.
The B’Tselem human rights group accused the army of carrying out a pair of “illegal executions”.
The security camera videos show two Israeli military vehicles pursuing a group of Palestinians in the Faraa refugee camp in the northern West Bank. One man, who appears to be holding a red canister, is gunned down by soldiers. B’Tselem identified the man as 25-year-old Rami Jundob.
The military Jeep then approaches Jundob as he lies bleeding on the ground and fires multiple shots at him until he is still. Soldiers then approach a man identified by B’Tselem as 36-year-old Thaar Shahin as he cowers underneath the hood of a car. They shoot at him from close range.
B’Tselem said that Shahin was killed instantly and Jundob died of his wounds the next day.
A prolonged communications blackout that severed telephone and internet connections compounded the misery on Saturday in the besieged Gaza Strip, where a United Nations agency said hunger levels had spiralled in recent days.
Internet and telephone lines went down on Thursday evening and were still inaccessible on Saturday morning, according to internet access advocacy group NetBlocks.org, hampering aid deliveries and rescue efforts as Israel’s war against Gaza’s ruling militant group Hamas stretched into the 11th week.
“The internet blackout is ongoing, and based on our records it is the longest such incident,” in the over-two-month war, said Alp Toker, the group’s director.
The United Nations’ humanitarian affairs department said communications with Gaza were “severely disrupted” due to damage to telecommunications lines in the south, according to an AP report.
More is in on Iran’s official Irna news agency reporting that an agent of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service was executed on Saturday in Iran.
Reuters reports the news agency said the person, who it did not name, “communicated with foreign services, specifically Mossad, collecting classified information, and with participation with associates, provided documents to foreign services, including the Mossad”.
Irna said the accused had handed classified information to a “Mossad officer” with the aim of “propaganda for groups and organisations opposed to the Islamic Republic”.
It did not say where the alleged handover had taken place.
It was not clear when the person was arrested, but Irna said an appeal had been rejected.
The execution, which took place in a Zahedan jail in south-eastern Sistan-Baluchestan province, came a day after Baluch militants attacked a police station in the province, killing 11 security personnel and wounding several others.
Dozens of Palestinians were killed in Gaza on Saturday in airstrikes by Israel, Palestinian media said, after the US urged Israel to scale down its military campaign and narrowly target Hamas leaders.
At least 14 people died from airstrikes that hit two houses on Old Gaza Street in Jabalia and dozens more were killed in a separate airstrike that hit another home in Jabalia, according to the official Palestinian Wafa news agency.
Reuters reports that Wafa also said a large number of civilians were trapped under rubble.
With intense ground fighting across the length of the Gaza Strip and aid organisations warning of a humanitarian catastrophe, the US has warned that Israel risks losing international support because of “indiscriminate” airstrikes killing Palestinian civilians.
President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, visiting Israel on Thursday and Friday, carried a message to Israel to scale down the broad military campaign and transition to more narrowly targeted operations against Hamas leaders, US officials said.
During Sullivan’s visit, Israeli officials publicly emphasised that they would continue the war until they achieve their aim of eradicating Hamas, which may take months.
Washington hinted on Friday at disagreement with Israel over how quickly to scale down the war, with Sullivan saying the timing was the subject of “intensive discussion” between the allies.
An Al Jazeera cameraman has been killed and the network’s chief Gaza correspondent wounded in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza, the network has said.
Cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa and correspondent Wael al-Dahdouh had gone to Farhana school in the southern city of Khan Younis after it was hit by a strike earlier in the day. While they were there, an Israeli drone hit the school with a second strike, the broadcaster said.
“The network holds Israel accountable for systematically targeting and killing their journalists and their families,” Al Jazeera said in a statement.
Following Samer’s injury he was left to bleed to death for over five hours, as Israeli forces prevented ambulances and rescue workers from reaching him, denying the much-needed emergency treatment.
Dahdouh was hit by shrapnel on his upper arm and managed to reach Nasser hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries, the network reported. The correspondent – whose wife, son, daughter and grandson were killed in an Israeli airstrike in October – said the Al Jazeera crew had been accompanying civil defence rescuers.
Al Jazeera’s managing editor, Mohamed Moawad, paid tribute to the cameraman on X (formerly Twitter), saying:
His unwavering commitment to truth and storytelling has left an indelible mark on our team.
The Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, told a general assembly meeting on the war that Israel “targets those who could document [their] crimes and inform the world, the journalists”.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Abu Daqqa is the 64th journalist to be killed since the conflict erupted between Hamas and Israel – 57 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese journalists.
The CPJ called on international authorities to conduct an independent investigation into the incident “to hold the perpetrators to account”.
Iran’s official Irna news agency has reported that an agent of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service was executed on Saturday in Iran’s south-eastern Sistan-Baluchestan province.
Reuters quotes the news agency as saying:
This person communicated with foreign services, including Mossad, collecting classified information, and with participation with associates, provided documents to foreign services, including the Mossad.
Irna did not name the person.
Iran has executed an “agent of Israel’s Mossad” intelligence service, Reuters has reported in a quick snap, citing Iranian media.
More on that as it emerges.
Israel on Saturday mourned the deaths of three Gaza hostages killed when troops mistook them for a threat, with the military expressing remorse over a “tragic” incident that sparked protests in Tel Aviv.
Agence France-Presse reports that the Israeli army said Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer El-Talalqa – all aged in their 20s – were shot during operations in a neighbourhood of Gaza City.
The three were among an estimated 240 people taken hostage during Hamas’s 7 October raids into Israel, which also killed an estimated 1,200 people.
Israel Defense Forces spokesprtson, Daniel Hagari, said:
During combat in Shejaiya, the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] mistakenly identified three Israeli hostages as a threat and as a result fired toward them and the hostages were killed.
The IDF expresses deep sorrow regarding this disaster and shares in the grief of the families.
Their bodies were transferred to Israel, and on examination were confirmed as being Haim, a 28-year-old heavy metal drummer, 25-year-old Bedouin man El-Talalqa and Shamriz, 26.
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, described their deaths as an “unbearable tragedy”. “All of Israel is grieving their loss,” he said, while the White House called it a “tragic mistake”.
As news of the incident spread late on Friday, hundreds of people gathered at Israel’s ministry of defence in Tel Aviv to call on Netanyahu’s government to secure the release of more than 130 hostages Israel believes to still being held in Hamas-ruled territory.
The demonstrators waved Israeli flags and brandished placards. One message read:
Every day, a hostage dies.
Merav Svirsky, sister of Hamas-held hostage Itay Svirsky, said:
I am dying of fear. We demand a deal now.
Welcome to our continuing live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war. My name is Adam Fulton and here’s a rundown of the latest news.
Israel has said its troops killed three Israeli hostages in Gaza after mistaking them for a threat, with the armed forces expressing “deep remorse” over a “tragic incident” that sparked protests in Tel Aviv.
The Israeli military said Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer El-Talalqa – all aged in their 20s – were shot during fighting in Gaza City.
Hundreds of people later marched in Tel Aviv and gathered at Israel’s ministry of defence in protest, displaying placards with the faces of some of more than 130 people Israel believes to still be held by Hamas in Gaza and calling for their immediate release.
Meanwhile, an Al Jazeera cameraman was killed and the network’s chief Gaza correspondent wounded in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in the territory, the network has said.
The cameraman, Samer Abu Daqqa, was “left to bleed to death for over five hours as Israeli forces prevented ambulances and rescue workers from reaching him”, it said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Committee to Protect Journalists called on international authorities to conduct an independent investigation into the incident “to hold the perpetrators to account”.
More on those stories soon. In other developments as it turns 8am in Gaza City and Tel Aviv:
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, mournedthe three hostages killed by Israeli forces by mistake, saying on X (formerly Twitter): “Together with the entire people of Israel, I bow my head in deep sorrow and mourn the fall of three of our dear sons who were kidnapped.”
Israel reopened an aid crossing into the Gaza Strip on Friday after earlier approving the “temporary measure”. Netanyahu’s office said after weeks of pressure that the aid would be allowed to be delivered directly to Gaza through its Kerem Shalom border crossing.
Two of the world’s largest shipping firms, Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, have said they are suspending passage through a Red Sea strait vital for global commerce after Yemeni rebel attacks in the area. The Iran-backed Houthis, who control much of Yemen but are not recognised internationally, say they are targeting shipping to pressure Israel during its war in Gaza.
The US should back the UN security council’s action to protect Gaza’s civilians, Human Rights Watch has said. HRW’s UN director, Louis Charbonneau, said on Friday that the US should act at the UN security council to “pressure Israel, as well as Palestinian armed groups, to comply with international humanitarian law and protect civilians”.
The German airline carrier Lufthansa has said it will resume flights to Tel Aviv starting on 8 January. In a statement released on Friday, Lufthansa said: “In a first phase, Lufthansa Airlines will initially offer four weekly flights from Frankfurt and three weekly flights from Munich. Austrian Airlines is planning eight weekly connections and SWISS five weekly flights.”
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees told the Global Refugee Forum that what continued to shock him was the “ever increasing level of dehumanisation” with the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Philippe Lazzarini said: “The fact that people can laugh, cheer and mock any type of wrongdoing that we observe in this war, when in fact what is happening in Gaza should outrage anyone, should make us all rethink our values… This is also a make or break moment for all of us and for our shared humanity.”
Hungary - which maintains close ties with Russia - has long opposed membership for Ukraine but did not veto that move.
Mr Orban left the negotiating room momentarily in what officials described as a pre-agreed and constructive manner, while the other 26 leaders went ahead with the vote.
He told Hungarian state radio on Friday that he had fought for eight hours to stop his EU partners but could not convince them. Ukraine's path to EU membership would be a long process anyway, he added, adding that parliament in Budapest could still stop it happening if it wanted to.
Commenting on Mr Orban's opposition to the aid, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said: "We still have some time, Ukraine is not out of money in the next few weeks."
"We agreed with the 26 countries," he added. "Viktor Orban, Hungary, were not yet able to do that. I am fairly confident we can get a deal early next year. We are thinking of late January."
At a news briefing in the early hours of Friday, Mr Michel confirmed that all but one EU leaders had agreed on the aid package and wider budget proposals for the bloc - although Sweden still needed to consult its parliament.
"We will revert to this matter early next year and we'll try to get unanimity," he said.
The loans and grants were to keep the country ticking over - helping fund public services, wages and pensions.
Ukraine's counter-offensive against Russia's occupying forces ground to a halt at the start of winter, and there are fears that the Russians could simply outgun Ukraine.
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Mr Zelensky was delighted by the EU's announcement on the membership. "This is a victory for Ukraine. A victory for all of Europe. A victory that motivates, inspires and strengthens," he wrote in a post on X.
Ukrainian politician Kira Rudik added that "we were really elated" following the news about EU membership talks, saying it showed "Ukraine has a future right now".
But she said the feeling was now "bittersweet" because of the funding being blocked, which she called a "huge frustration". "It is impossible to have a European future without winning the war," she told the BBC.
Earlier this week a senior Ukrainian official told the BBC that for now, EU membership talks are more important that the €50bn because of the message it sends to both the Ukrainian people and Vladimir Putin.
And there's some confidence in Kyiv that Brussels will be able to find a way to channel fresh economic funds, by hook or by crook.
Ukraine and neighbouring Moldova applied to join the EU after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. They were both given candidate status last June, while Georgia was passed over at the time.
Moldovan President Maia Sandu said it was an honour to share the path to EU accession with Ukraine. "We wouldn't be here today without Ukraine's brave resistance against Russia's brutal invasion," she wrote.
Earlier this year, Moldova alleged that Russia was seeking to seize power in Chisinau.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan welcomed the EU's "historic" move to open accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova, calling it a "crucial step toward fulfilling their Euro-Atlantic aspirations".
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz praised his fellow leaders for showing a "strong sign of support", adding that it was clear that both Ukraine and Moldova belonged to "the European family". A diplomat at the summit said it was Mr Scholz's idea for Mr Orban to leave the room to enable the vote to go through.
The Hungarian leader later distanced himself from his colleagues with a video message on Facebook: "EU membership of Ukraine is a bad decision. Hungary does not want to participate in this bad decision."
Mr Orban has also argued that Ukraine should not get large funds from the EU as it is not part of the bloc.
Earlier on Thursday, President Putin mocked Ukraine and claimed Western support was running out: "Excuse my vulgarity, but everything is being brought in as a freebie. But those freebies could run out at some point."
Talks on joining the EU can take years, so Thursday's decision will not guarantee Ukraine membership.
EU candidate countries have to pass a series of reforms to adhere to standards ranging from the rule of law to the economy, although the EU's executive has already praised Ukraine for completing more than 90% of the steps taken so far on justice and tackling corruption.
There are also other countries, aside from Hungary, who are sceptical about expanding the EU beyond the current 27.
And talk of expansion often comes alongside airy proposals for root-and-branch reform of a bloc that's often unwieldy on far less fundamental issues.
But it's still a boost for morale and comes just in time as Ukraine heads into a second winter following Russia's full-scale invasion, and as the world's attention is drawn elsewhere by war in the Middle East.
