CrossFireArabia
On the rubble of homes in Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza, where residents were displaced by the Israeli army, Israeli forces are celebrating the New Year 2025 amidst ongoing destruction.
CrossFireArabia
Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza has become a “ghost town” due to Israel’s relentless attacks, with 70 percent of the camp’s buildings completely destroyed, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Haaretz, which briefly had access to the camp in besieged northern Gaza, said in a report on Sunday that the number is an estimate by the Israeli army.
None of the army’s other operations in Lebanon and other parts of Gaza “can compare, in the scale of the destruction, to what has happened over the last two and a half months” in the camps.
“As far as the eye can see lie miles and miles of destroyed homes. It’s hard to look away from the devastated remains of Jabalia’s refugee camp in northern Gaza,” Amos Harel, a military affairs analyst, wrote in Haaretz.
“I could see that even the few buildings that are still standing were badly damaged,” Harel said.
“The IDF (army) operated here twice before, in December 2023 and May 2024. But this time, the camp was taken apart,” Amos said.
“Jabalia has become a ghost town. Outside, you mainly see pack after pack of stray dogs roaming around and hunting for scraps of food.”
According to the army’s data, quoted by Haaretz, some 96,000 Palestinian civilians were forcibly displaced from the densely populated camp during the military’s operation.
Haaretz added, citing the army, that more than 2,000 Palestinians have been killed and roughly 1,500 have been arrested in the camp over the same period.
The army claims most of the people killed in the camp were armed, the report also said according to the Quds News Network.
CrossFireArabia
The European Union has provided over $250 million in research funding to Israeli institutions since 7 October, 2024, despite mounting criticism over Israel’s genocide in Gaza, reported Al Jazeera. Some of these funds have gone to organizations linked to Israel’s military industry.
On the day Israel launched its assault on Gaza, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen voiced strong support for Israel. “Israel has a right to defend itself,” she said in a statement, reiterating the EU’s alignment with Israel.
Since then, Israel has faced genocide accusations at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and indictments against its leaders at the International Criminal Court (ICC). Yet, the EU continues to fund Israeli institutions under its Horizon research and innovation programme.
Data analyzed by Al Jazeera shows that the EU awarded Israeli institutions over €238 million ($250 million) in research grants since the Gaza genocide began. Among the recipients was Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), a defense manufacturer, which received €640,000 ($674,000).
Though Horizon guidelines require funded projects to be exclusively for civil purposes, many technologies developed with EU support have dual-use applications—both civil and military.
More than 2,000 European academics and 45 organizations petitioned the EU to suspend funding to Israeli institutions, accusing the Horizon programme of advancing Israel’s military technologies.
“These funding schemes directly support Israeli military capabilities,” the petition stated. It highlighted the role of EU-backed research in Israel’s actions in Gaza, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed.
Many Horizon projects in Israel focus on dual-use technologies. For instance, IAI developed drone mapping tools with EU funds for “emergency response.” Critics argue such tools can easily serve military purposes.
Elbit Systems, another defense company, received over €10 million ($11.2 million) under earlier Horizon frameworks. The company has strong ties to Israel’s Ministry of Defence.
A large portion of Horizon funds goes to Israeli universities. Scholars like Maya Wind argue these institutions are deeply embedded in Israel’s military industry.
“Israeli universities are pillars of the military-industrial complex,” Wind said. Institutions like the Technion and Weizmann Institute have spearheaded defense technology development for decades according to the Quds News Network.
CrossFireArabia
The United Nations reports that Gaza has the highest number of child amputees per capita globally, following over a year of Israel’s war on the enclave.
“Gaza now has the highest number of child amputees per capita anywhere in the world — many losing limbs and undergoing surgeries without even anaesthesia,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in remarks delivered by his deputy at a Cairo conference focused on accelerating humanitarian aid to Gaza.
CrossFireArabia
Maisara Salah, a journalist with the Quds News Network, was killed by Israeli forces in northern Gaza while he was covering an attack on a school.
Hours after his passing from an Israeli military attack in northern Gaza, the journalist’s grandmother also from grief over the loss of her grandson.
In a statement the Quds News Network it is with profound sadness and sorrow, mourns the loss of its deeply committed colleague who died after wounds by gunfire of the Israeli occupation forces. It added Maisara was targeted, Friday, on the ongoing war on Gaza, in which the occupation continues to destroy buildings, massacres people and families while uprooting trees on a mass scale.
The journalist was injured and succumbed to his wounds the following day Saturday, near the Awani Al-Harthani School after a violent Israeli airstrike targeted the school, which was sheltering hundreds of displaced people. These individuals were trapped for the past two months, hungry and desperate due to the continuous military aggression.
Despite the relentless efforts of the medical staff at the Kamal Adwan Hospital to save his life, the Israeli occupation refused to allow his transfer to hospitals in Gaza City for necessary treatment on Saturday, 30 November, 2024. After strenuous attempts to transfer him to the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital and/or Shifa Hospital, the occupation stopped the ambulance and detained Maisara for eight hours. They allowed him to pass thereafter but it was too late and died as a result.
In a written statement the editors of the Quds News Network stated they hold the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the martyrdom of Maisara Salah, who they said was killed twice—once by the direct injury and again by the obstruction of his medical treatment.
The network calls on human rights and international organizations to launch an immediate and thorough investigation into the ongoing war crimes committed by the occupation against Palestinian journalists, which have so far led to the martyrdom of more than 190 journalists, in a blatant violation of all international laws and norms. He is journalist number 192 to have been killed by Israeli gunfire.
His comment on Facebook on the situation in North Gaza stated: “We are besieged from all directions—south, north, west, and east. Between us and the Israeli tanks, there are less than 400 meters.
There is no way to flee or reach Gaza.” For over 52 days, the Israeli army has been besieging North Gaza, cutting off food, water, and media services, while shutting down hospitals and civil defense operations.
