Updates: Hamas-Israel ceasefire holds

Updates: Hamas-Israel ceasefire holds

  • Pope highlights open, exposed tents in Gaza on Christmas
  • Israeli settlers set Palestinian home ablaze in occupied West Bank
  • Bethlehem celebrates first festive Christmas since Gaza war
  • Netanyahu coalition pushes contentious Oct 7 attack probe
  • Thursday Dec 25 2025 | 11:45 PM

    Israel issues new eviction order for al-Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City

    By: Web Desk

    The Israeli occupation military issued a new eviction order for residents of east of the al-Tuffah neighbourhood in Gaza City, WAFA News Agency reported, citing sources.

    The area — more than 100 meters in length and over 300 meters in width — had been designated as a “safe” location by the military ahead of the planned expansion of the no-go zone.

    The announcement has triggered a large-scale displacement, with hundreds of families beginning to leave westward.

  • Thursday Dec 25 2025 | 10:27 PM

    Israeli air force ‘intercepts’ two drone from Egypt

    By: Web Desk

    The Israeli military said two drones launched from Egypt into Israeli territory have been intercepted by air force helicopters, Al Jazeera reported.

    In a post on Telegram, the military said that drones had crossed from the west in what it referred to as a “smuggling attempt”.

  • Thursday Dec 25 2025 | 10:03 PM

    Israeli forces 'arrest' five settlers over alleged attack on Palestinians

    By: AFP

    Israeli security forces announced on Thursday the arrest of five Israeli settlers over their alleged involvement in an attack on a Palestinian home that injured a baby girl in the occupied West Bank.

    The eight-month-old infant suffered "moderate injuries to the face and head" in the late Wednesday attack, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

    It blamed the attack on "a group of armed settlers", accusing them of "throwing stones at homes and property" in the town of Sair, north of Hebron.

  • Thursday Dec 25 2025 | 08:37 PM

    Israeli military says it killed a member of Iran’s Quds Force in Lebanon

    By: Reuters

    The Israeli military said that its forces killed a member of Iran's Quds Force in Lebanon who had been involved in planning attacks from Syria and Lebanon.

    The military identified the man as Hussein Mahmoud Marshad al-Jawhari, calling him a key operative in the force's unit 840.

    He was assassinated in the area or Ansariyeh, the military added in a statement, without giving any further details of his death.

  • Thursday Dec 25 2025 | 06:45 PM

    Lebanon says two dead in Israeli strike near Syria border

    By: AFP

    Lebanon said an Israeli strike near the border with Syria killed two people on Thursday, as a deadline nears for Lebanon’s army to disarm resistance group Hezbollah in the country’s south.

    "An Israeli enemy strike today on a vehicle in the town of Hawsh al-Sayyed Ali in the Hermel district killed two people," the health ministry said, with the state-run National News Agency saying the raid targeted a van.

    The NNA also reported that a man wounded in an Israeli strike last week near Beirut had died of his injuries.

    It identified him as a member of Lebanon’s General Security agency and said "he happened to be passing at the time of the strike as he returned from service" in Beirut.

  • Thursday Dec 25 2025 | 04:32 PM

    Israel calls countries condemning new West Bank settlements ‘morally wrong’

    By: AFP

    Israel reacted furiously to a condemnation by 14 countries including France and Britain of its approval of new settlements in the occupied West Bank, calling the criticism discriminatory against Jews.

    "Foreign governments will not restrict the right of Jews to live in the Land of Israel, and any such call is morally wrong and discriminatory against Jews," Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said.

    On Sunday, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that authorities had greenlit the settlements, saying the move was aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.

    "On the ground, we are blocking the establishment of a Palestinian terror state," said Smotrich, a vocal proponent of settlement expansion and a settler himself.

    Fourteen countries, including Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Canada, then issued a statement urging Israel to reverse its decision, "as well as the expansion of settlements".

  • Thursday Dec 25 2025 | 03:11 PM

    Pope condemns 'open wounds' of wars, decries Gaza situation in Christmas homily

    By: AFP

    VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo XIV has condemned the "rubble and open wounds" left behind by wars, singling out the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza as he conducted his first Christmas homily.

    Fragile is the flesh of defenceless populations, tried by so many wars, ongoing or concluded, leaving behind rubble and open wounds," the pope said at the mass in St Peter's Basilica.

    "How [...] can we not think of the tents in Gaza, exposed for weeks to rain, wind and cold," he said.

  • Thursday Dec 25 2025 | 01:20 PM

    Threat to Muslim holy places is threat against our churches: Jerusalem's Greek Orthodox patriarch

    By: Web Desk
  • Thursday Dec 25 2025 | 11:07 AM

    Cardinal Pizzaballa terms Gaza situation 'really catastrophic'

    By: Web Desk
  • Thursday Dec 25 2025 | 07:27 AM

    Gaza war death toll soars to 70,942: report

    By: Web Desk