A Palestinian man stands on the rubble of a family home, demolished by Israeli forces earlier during a raid in Hebron city in the occupied West Bank on January 21, 2024. (Photo by Mosab Shawer / AFP)
Doha, Qatar: Even as US senator Bernie Sanders slammed unconditional support by Biden administration to Israel, the latter continued its deadly assault across Gaza. Fighting raged across the Strip, while Israeli units raided the West Bank on Sunday.
Gaza's health ministry reported that at least 165 people have been killed over the previous 24 hours -- more than double Friday's toll.
An AFP correspondent reported gunfire, air strikes and tank shelling that was especially heavy in Khan Yunis, souther Gaza's main city.
Witnesses also told AFP that Israeli boats were bombarding Gaza City and other areas in the north early on Sunday.
Watch this page for more live updates:
[11:36pm Doha Time] US Muslim group urges probe into alleged Israeli theft of ancient artifacts
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) reportedly said that the UN must investigate allegations that Israeli troops looted archeological artefacts in Gaza.
“The ongoing genocide by the far-right Israeli government in Gaza is targeting all aspects of Palestinian culture and heritage,” CAIR’s Director Nihad Awad said in a statement.
“We urge the United Nations to investigate this latest war crime of cultural theft and for the Biden administration to open its eyes to the harm its blind support for this genocide and ethnic cleansing is doing to our nation’s humanity, core values and interests worldwide.”
[3:03pm Doha Time] Latest number of casualties in Israel’s war on Gaza
[12pm Doha Time] Palestinian death toll in Gaza soars past 25,000
A total of 25,105 Palestinians have been killed and 62,681 injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, the health ministry says.
About 178 Palestinians were killed and 293 wounded in the past 24 hours, it added.
Smoke billowing over Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip during Israeli bombardment on January 21, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
[10:30 am Doha Time] Israel far from ‘destroying’ Hamas in Gaza: Report
A report by US intelligence agencies concludes that Hamas has lost 20-30 percent of its fighters after months of Israel’s war on Gaza, meaning it is far from being destroyed.
A report by the US news outlet Wall Street Journal says the agencies also found Hamas still has enough weaponry to continue striking Israeli forces and launch rockets into Israel “for months”.
It said even though individual Hamas fighters may have to take on more tasks since they have lost comrades, they are far from being incapacitated and have changed their operational tactics to adjust.
The report also said Israeli officials estimate up to 16,000 Hamas fighters have been wounded and about half of those will not be returning to the battlefield. But US estimates puts that number between 10,500 and 11,700 fighters, many of whom could return.
[10am Doha Time] Israeli forces raid Qalqilya, Hebron in West Bank
Israeli forces have raided several locations in the occupied West Bank including:
Qalqilya
Hebron
Maythaloun town, south of Jenin.
In Hebron, Israeli forces with bulldozers reportedly surrounded three houses and demolished at least one of them, according to local sources and video verified by Al Jazeera.
The homes targeted reportedly belonged to men involved in an attack on the Tunnel Checkpoint south of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank in November last year.
[9am Doha Time] ‘There has to be an academic boycott of Israel’: Palestinian writer
Israel’s destruction of higher education in Gaza has been “methodical” and “deliberate”, says Said Arikat, a journalist and adjunct instructor at the American University in Washington, DC.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Washington, DC after Israel demolished Gaza’s Israa University, Arikat said “it is obvious that Israel is committing cultural genocide in Gaza”.
“There has to be an academic boycott of Israel,” he added, noting that Israel has “all but destroyed all seven universities in Gaza [which] tells us that it is deliberate.”
Arikat told Al Jazeera that “higher education thrived in the past and many young people in Gaza ended up going to the university”.
