Updates: Hamas-Israel ceasefire holds

A Hamas official said Tuesday that the Gaza ceasefire cannot proceed to its second phase as long as Israeli "violations" persist, calling on mediators to pressure Israel to respect the deal.

"The second phase cannot begin as long as the occupation (Israel) continues its violations of the agreement and evades its commitments," Hamas political bureau member Hossam Badran told AFP, referring to the fragile ceasefire that came into effect on October 10.

"Hamas has asked the mediators to pressure the occupation to complete the implementation of the first phase," he added.

China, Iran and Saudi Arabia called for "an immediate halt to Israeli aggression against Palestine, Lebanon and Syria" at a trilateral meeting in Tehran on Tuesday, a statement released by China's foreign ministry showed.

The three countries "condemned violations of Iran's national sovereignty and territorial integrity" in the meeting attended by their foreign ministry officials, according to the statement.

Thousands of children have been admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition in Gaza since an October ceasefire that was supposed to enable a major increase in humanitarian aid, the UN children's agency said on Tuesday.

"It's still a shockingly high number," said Unicef spokesperson Tess Ingram.

"The number of children admitted is five times higher than in February, so we need to see the numbers come down further."

Ingram described meeting underweight babies weighing less than 1 kilogram born in hospitals "their tiny chests heaving with the effort of staying alive."

She said meat was still prohibitively expensive at around $20 a kilogram and "most families can't access this, and that's why we're still seeing high rates of malnutrition."

Israel will reopen the crossing on the Israeli-controlled border between Jordan and the occupied West Bank to humanitarian aid trucks destined for Gaza for the first time since late September, an Israeli official said on Tuesday.

"Following the understandings and a directive of the political echelon, starting tomorrow (Wednesday) the transfer of goods and aid from Jordan to the area of Judea and Samaria and to the Gaza Strip will be permitted through the Allenby Crossing", an Israeli official said in a statement Tuesday, using the Israeli Biblical term for the West Bank.

"All aid trucks destined for the Gaza Strip will proceed under escort and security, following a thorough security inspection", the official added.

The Israeli army continues to carry out airstrikes and artillery shelling in the northern and southern Gaza Strip, violating an already fragile ceasefire, Anadolu Agency reported.

Residents of Rafah and Khan Younis told Anadolu Agency that Israeli forces conducted intense airstrikes in the western parts of Rafah, while artillery fire targeted the eastern areas. Reports also indicate demolitions in Gaza City.

Witnesses said the shelling has caused damage to infrastructure and heightened fears among civilians, despite the ongoing ceasefire aimed at easing tensions in the region.

RSF said Israel was responsible for nearly half of all journalists killed this year worldwide, with 29 Palestinian reporters slain by its forces in Gaza, the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) group said on Tuesday.

In its annual report, the Paris-based media freedom group said the total number of journalists killed reached 67 globally this year, slightly up from the 66 killed in 2024.

Israeli forces accounted for 43 % of the total, making them "the worst enemy of journalists", RSF said in its report, which documented deaths over 12 months from December 2024.

The most deadly single attack was a so-called "double-tap" strike on a hospital in south Gaza on August 25 which killed five journalists, including two contributors to international news agencies Reuters and the Associated Press.

In total, since the start of hostilities in Gaza in October 2023, nearly 220 journalists have died, making Israel the biggest killer of journalists worldwide for three years running, RSF data shows.

Foreign reporters are still unable to travel to Gaza — unless they are in tightly controlled tours organised by the Israeli military — despite calls from media groups and press freedom organisations for access.

A federal judge has cleared the way for a Tufts University PhD student and pro-Palestinian activist Rumeysa Ozturk to work on campus after ordering the Trump administration to restore her status in a key database used to track foreign students.

Chief US District Judge Denise Casper in Boston issued an injunction after concluding Ozturk was likely to succeed in proving US Immigration and Customs Enforcement unlawfully terminated her record in the database the same day that masked, plainclothes agents took her into custody in March.

That ICE-maintained database is called the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System and is used to track foreign students who enter on visas. The termination of a student's record from that database prevents that person from being employed.

Ozturk in a statement said she was grateful for the ruling and that she hopes "that no one else experiences the injustices I have suffered."

The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it struck infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah in several areas in southern Lebanon, including what it described as a training compound used by the armed group's Radwan forces.

Military structures and a launch site belonging to Hezbollah were also hit in the attacks, the military added in a statement.

The strikes come less than a week after Israel and Lebanon both sent civilian envoys to a military committee monitoring their ceasefire, a step towards a months-old US demand that the two countries broaden talks in line with President Donald Trump's Middle East peace agenda.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet US President Donald Trump on December 29 to discuss the next steps of the Gaza ceasefire, an Israeli government spokesperson said on Monday.

"The Prime Minister will meet with President Trump on Monday, December 29, they will discuss the future steps and phases and the international stabilisation force of the ceasefire plan," government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian said in an online briefing to reporters.

DOHA: Conditions for medics and patients in Gaza are as severe as ever despite a nearly two-month truce in the territory, the president of medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said in an AFP interview.

"It's as hard as it's ever been," Javid Abdelmoneim said of conditions for medical staff operating in Gaza's hospitals, speaking on the sidelines of the annual Doha Forum on diplomacy.

"While we're able to continue doing operations, deliveries, wound care, you´re using protocols or materials and drugs that are inferior, that are not the standard. So you've got substandard care being delivered," he explained.

"We're seeing the injured patients in the emergency rooms in which we work throughout the strip," he added.

The MSF president said that since the truce began, aid "hasn't come in to the level that´s necessary".

"There isn't a substantial change and it is being weaponised [....] So as far as we´re concerned that is an ongoing feature of the genocide. It´s being used as a chip and that's something that should not happen with humanitarian aid," said Abdelmoneim.