As Israeli aggression in Gaza, Lebanon, and Post-Assad Syria deepens human suffering and regional instability, and amid growing international calls for ceasefires and de-escalation, Ahram Online covered the latest developments in the Middle East as they unfolded on Saturday, 28 December.
22:15 Multiple Palestinians were killed and several others injured this evening in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City and Khan Younis.
In Gaza City, two Palestinians were killed when Israeli warplanes targeted a group of civilians on Al-Jalaa Street in the western part of the city. Several others were wounded in the attack.
Israeli airstrikes also targeted a house in Jabalia, located in the northern Gaza Strip, resulting in multiple fatalities and injuries. The north region of Gaza has experienced severe bombardment in recent days, contributing to the rising death toll.
In southern Gaza, several civilians were injured when Israeli planes hit a house in the Qizan Al-Najjar area, south of Khan Younis.
Medical sources reported that at least 36 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza since the early hours of Saturday, with the majority of casualties in the northern parts of the Strip.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for residents in northern Gaza, including Beit Hanoun, as part of its ongoing military offensive. These measures are part of the broader campaign of destruction and displacement that has included a siege on hospitals and the bombing of medical facilities. This consists of the recent destruction and burning of the Kamal Adwan Hospital on Friday.
21:30 Qatar's prime minister met a Hamas delegation in Doha on Saturday to discuss a "clear and comprehensive" ceasefire deal to end the war in Gaza, a statement said.
The foreign ministry statement said Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani held talks with a Hamas team led by senior official Khalil al-Hayya.
According to AFP, it is unusual for Sheikh Mohammed, also Qatar's foreign minister, to be publicly involved in the mediation process that has appeared deadlocked for months.
"During the meeting, the latest developments in the Gaza ceasefire negotiations were reviewed, and ways to advance the process were discussed to ensure a clear and comprehensive agreement that brings an end to the ongoing war in the region," the statement said.
Earlier this month, the sheikh expressed optimism that "momentum" was returning to the talks following Donald Trump's election victory in the United States.
18:45 Yemen's Huthis said new air raids hit the country's north on Saturday, shortly after they claimed responsibility for a missile attack on Israel.
A Huthi military statement said the raids were carried out in the Buhais area of Hajjah province's Medi district, blaming "US-British aggression".
There was no immediate comment from London or Washington.
The Huthis made the same claim about a raid they said hit a park in the capital, Sanaa, on Friday.
18:25 The World Health Organization said that the Kamal Adwan hospital was "now empty" following an Israeli military raid which put north Gaza's last central health facility out of service.
The WHO said it was "appalled" by Friday's raid, saying "hospitals have once again become battlegrounds" and describing the lifeline of healthcare in north Gaza as reaching "breaking point".
"The systematic dismantling of the health system and a siege for over 80 days on north Gaza puts the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the area at risk," the UN health agency said in a statement.
"Kamal Adwan is now empty," the WHO said.
The remaining 15 critical patients, 50 caregivers and 20 health workers were transferred Friday to the Indonesian Hospital, which it described as "destroyed and non-functional".
"The movement and treatment of these critical patients under such conditions pose grave risks to their survival.
"WHO is deeply concerned for their wellbeing, and the Kamal Adwan Hospital director has been reportedly detained during the raid. WHO lost contact with him since the raid began."
The WHO said initial reports indicated that some areas of the hospital were burnt and severely damaged during the raid, including the laboratory, surgical unit, engineering and maintenance department, operations theatre and the medical store.
It said that 12 patients had reportedly been forced to evacuate to the Indonesian Hospital earlier Friday.
"Additionally, some people were reportedly stripped and forced to walk toward southern Gaza.
"An urgent WHO mission to Indonesian Hospital is being planned for tomorrow to move patients to southern Gaza for continued care safely."
17:25 Turkey's top diplomat said Syrian Kurdish fighters essential for the United States in the fight against IS extremists cannot be sheltered in Syria, in a phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told Blinken that "the PKK/YPG terrorist organisation cannot be allowed to take shelter in Syria," the ministry spokesman said, referring to the People's Protection Units (YPG) Ankara views as a terror group.
Turkey has long been rankled by the United States' support for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern Syria. Ankara sees YPG -- the main component of the SDF -- as an extension of its outlawed domestic foe, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
But Washington has long seen the SDF -- which spearheaded the fight that defeated Islamic State group jihadists in 2019 -- as crucial to preventing a jihadist resurgence in the area.
Fidan told Blinken that Ankara backed Syria's new rulers' efforts to "ensure the territorial integrity and security" of the country.
According to the ministry spokesperson, he also said during the phone call that "it is important to act in cooperation with the new Syrian administration to ensure stability in Syria and to complete the transition period in an orderly manner. "
15:20 Senior officials from Libya's UN-recognised government met Syria's new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, and discussed diplomatic relations, energy and migration issues.
"We expressed our full support for the Syrian authorities in the success of the important transitional phase," Libyan Minister of State for Communication and Political Affairs Walid Ellafi told reporters after the meeting.
"We emphasised the importance of coordination and cooperation... particularly on security and military issues," he said, while they also discussed cooperation "related to energy and trade" and "illegal immigration".
Syrians fleeing war since 2011 and seeking a better life have often travelled to Libya in search of work or passage across the Mediterranean on flimsy boats towards Europe.
Ellafi said they also discussed "the importance of raising diplomatic representation between the two countries".
"Today, the charge d'affaires attended the meeting with me, and we are seeking a permanent ambassador," he added.
Protocol chief in Syria's new ministry of foreign affairs, Qutaiba Qadish (R), meets with Minister of State for Political Affairs Walid Ellafi from Libya's UN-recognised government in Damascus. AFP
14:45 Lebanese judicial and security officials said that the wife and daughter of one of deposed Syrian President Bashar Assad’s cousins were arrested Friday at the Beirut airport, where they attempted to fly out with allegedly forged passports. Assad’s uncle departed the day before.
Rasha Khazem, the wife of Duraid Assad — the son of former Syrian Vice President Rifaat Assad, the uncle of Bashar Assad — and their daughter, Shams, were smuggled illegally into Lebanon and were trying to fly to Egypt when they were arrested, according to five Lebanese officials familiar with the case. Lebanese General Security was detaining them.
The officials said that Rifaat had flown out the day before on his real passport and was not stopped. They spoke anonymously because they were not authorised to discuss the case publicly.
Swiss federal prosecutors in March indicted Rifaat on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for allegedly ordering murder and torture more than four decades ago.
Rifaat Assad, the brother of Bashar Assad's father, Hafez Assad, Syria's former ruler, led the artillery unit that shelled the city of Hama and killed thousands, earning him the nickname the “Butcher of Hama.”
Earlier this year, Rifaat Assad was indicted in Switzerland for war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with Hama.
Tens of thousands of Syrians are believed to have entered Lebanon illegally on the night of Assad’s fall earlier this month when insurgent forces entered Damascus.
The Lebanese security and judicial officials said that more than 20 members of the former Syrian Army’s notorious 4th Division, military intelligence officers and others affiliated with Assad’s security forces were arrested earlier in Lebanon. Some of them were arrested when they attempted to sell their weapons.
Lebanon’s public prosecution office also received an Interpol notice requesting the arrest of Jamil al-Hassan, the former director of Syrian intelligence under Assad.
Lebanon's caretaker, Prime Minister Najib Mikati, previously told Reuters that the country would cooperate with Interpol's request to arrest al-Hassan.
13:30 Gaza’s health ministry has reported that 48 people were killed in the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll in the Palestinian territory to 45,484.
The ministry also stated that at least 108,090 people have been wounded in over 14 months of relentless Israeli bombardment and ground invasion. Thousands more remain trapped under the rubble.
Wounded Palestinians receive medical attention at the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City after patients were transported from the Kamal Adwan Hospital. AFP
13:15 The Guardian, citing Israeli media, reported that five Israeli protesters were arrested outside Prime Minister Netanyahu’s home in Jerusalem while demanding the release of captives held in Gaza.
According to Channel 12, the group of 20 protesters gathered early in the morning, using loudspeakers to tell Netanyahu that the captives were suffering in tunnels while he enjoyed home comforts. They also chanted about Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, referring to a police investigation into allegations of her harassment of opponents.
“Everything is closing in on you. We, the people, will not forget or forgive,” the protesters shouted while banging drums and blowing horns.
Police said the protesters were arrested for violating noise restrictions.
Protesters gather for a rally calling for action to secure the release of Israeli captives held in Gaza outside the Defence Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv. AFP
12:30 World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he wasn't sure he would survive Israel's bombing of Sanaa International Airport in Yemen on Thursday, describing the air raid as so deafening that his ears were still ringing more than a day later, according to Reuters.
“I was not sure I could survive because it was so close, a few meters from where we were,” he told Reuters. “A slight deviation could have resulted in a direct hit.”
Reuters quoted Tedros saying that after the attack, he and his colleagues navigated through the debris, hearing drones overhead and fearing more strikes.
“There (was) no shelter at all. Nothing. So you’re just exposed, just waiting for anything to happen,” he said.
Israeli strikes on the airport killed at least four people and injured around 20, including staff, airport workers, and passengers. The attacks also targeted the port of Hodeida and other civilian infrastructure in Houthi-held areas of Yemen.
“So a civilian airport should be protected, whether I am in it or not,” Tedros said.
“One of my colleagues said we narrowly escaped death. I’m just one human being. So, I feel for those who are facing the same thing every single day. But at least it allowed me to feel the way they feel.”
“I’m worried about our world, where it’s heading,” Tedros added. “I have never ... as far as I can remember, seen the world really being in such a very dangerous state.”
11:15 UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, Julien Harneis, who narrowly escaped an Israeli aerial bombing raid on Sanaa's airport, denied on Friday that the facility had any military purpose.
Harneis said the airport "is a civilian location that the United Nations use."
"It's used by the International Committee of the Red Cross, and it is used for civilian flights- that is its purpose," he told reporters via video link from Yemen.
"Parties to the conflict have an obligation to ensure that they are not striking civilian targets," he added. "The obligation is on them, not on us. We don't need to prove we're civilians."
Harneis described how he, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and 18 other UN staff were caught up in the attack, which he said also took place as a packed airliner was touching down nearby.
One UN staffer was seriously wounded in the strikes, which destroyed the air traffic control facility, Harneis said. The rest of the team was bundled into armoured vehicles for safety.
"There was one air strike approximately 300 meters (985 feet) to the south of us and another approximately 300 meters to the north of us," he said.
"What was most frightening about that air strike wasn't the effect on us -- it's that the air strikes took place... as a civilian airliner from Yemenia Air, carrying hundreds of Yemenis, was about to land," he said.
"In fact, that airliner from Yemenia Air was landing, taxiing in, when the air traffic control was destroyed."
Although the plane "was able to land safely... it could have been far, far worse."
The Israeli attack, he said came with "zero indication of any potential air strikes."
Harneis said the airport is "absolutely vital" to continued humanitarian aid for Yemen. "If that airport is disabled, it will paralyze humanitarian operations."
The United Nations has labelled Yemen "the largest humanitarian crisis in the world," with 24.1 million people in need of humanitarian aid and protection.
Public institutions that provide healthcare, water, sanitation and education have collapsed in the wake of years of war.
The Houthis control large parts of Yemen after seizing Sanaa and ousting the internationally recognized government in September 2014.
Israel's strikes come as the group has stepped up its long-range attacks on Israel in the wake of a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah.
The Houthis have insisted they would halt their attacks as soon as a ceasefire is established in Israel's war on Gaza.
11:00 The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a car bomb exploded late Friday in the centre of the flashpoint northern Syria town of Manbij, causing damage but no casualties.
The Britain-based Observatory, with a network of sources in Syria, said there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.
Manbij, which Kurdish-led forces had for years held, fell earlier this month to pro-Turkey armed groups.
The White Helmets rescuers group also reported the blast, posting on its Telegram channel late Friday: "A car bomb exploded outside the grand mosque in central Manbij."
The Observatory said it was the second such attack in days. On Tuesday, bombs in a car killed two people in Manbij, the war monitor said.
It added that Friday's attack caused "material damage, but there were no immediate reports of human losses."
10:30 Gaza-based journalist Motasem Dalloul reported that hospital director Dr Abu Safiyeh was released but is still being held inside Kamal Adwan Hospital, where most departments were set on fire by Israeli forces.
"No more info about the other medics or critically wounded patients!" he posted on X.
Ahram Online was unable to verify the update on Abu Safiyeh's release.
10:00 Gaza's health ministry said that Israeli forces detained the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, which the World Health Organization said was put out of service by an Israeli raid.
"The occupation forces have taken dozens of the medical staff from Kamal Adwan Hospital to a detention centre for interrogation, including the director, Hossam Abu Safiyeh," the health ministry said in a statement.
Gaza's civil defence agency also reported that Abu Safiyeh had been detained, adding that the agency's director for the north, Ahmed Hassan al-Kahlout, was among those held.
"The occupation has completely destroyed the medical, humanitarian, and civil defence systems in the north, rendering them useless," Mahmoud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency, told AFP.
Motasem Dalloul, a Gaza-based journalist, confirmed reports that most of the staff at Kamal Adwan, including Abu Safiyeh, were kidnapped by the Israeli army.
9:30 Palestinian group Hamas denied that its fighters were present in Kamal Adwan Hospital after Israeli forces stormed the facility on Friday, forcibly evacuating staff and patients and setting fire to several parts of the hospital.
"We categorically deny the presence of any military activity or resistance fighters in the hospital," Hamas said in a statement.
"The enemy's lies about the hospital aim to justify the heinous crime committed by the occupation army today, involving the evacuation and burning of all hospital departments as part of a plan for extermination and forced displacement."
Israel has often made such claims before raiding hospitals and civilian areas without providing evidence.
Emergency physician Dr James Smith told Sky News that he saw no Hamas presence when he was working in Gaza's hospitals. He also blamed Israel for using this tactic to justify its attacks on hospitals.
"I think we need to systematically do away with these assertions; this is a military tactic that the Israeli forces have used to justify their attacks on pretty much every single healthcare facility in Gaza," he told the British broadcaster.
"There is no justification under international law for what is happening to Kamal Adwan and the healthcare workers, patients and civilians that are currently sheltering there," he added.
After the army raid on Kamal Adwan, Hamas called on the United Nations to establish an investigation committee "to examine the scale of crimes being committed in northern Gaza."
9:00 The World Health Organization said an Israeli military raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital had put the last central health facility in northern Gaza out of service.
"Initial reports indicate that some key departments were severely burnt and destroyed during the raid," the WHO said in a statement on X.
The WHO said 60 health workers and 25 patients in critical condition, including those on ventilators, reportedly remain in the hospital.
The patients in moderate to severe condition were forced to evacuate to the destroyed and non-functional Indonesian Hospital, the UN health agency said, adding that it was "deeply concerned for their safety".
The WHO described conditions at Kamal Adwan Hospital as "appalling" and said it operated at a "minimum" level.
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, quoting hospital director Hossam Abu Safiyeh, said that the military had "set on fire all surgery departments of the hospital".
Abu Safiyeh said the military had also "evacuated the entire medical staff and displaced people".
"There are a large number of injuries among the medical team."
Abu Safiyeh said that as of Friday morning, the hospital housed around 350 people, including 75 injured and sick patients and 180 medical staff.
Witnesses in the area told AFP that the hospital had been evacuated, and hundreds of people living in the vicinity were "forced to seek refuge at Al-Fakhura school and the Indonesian hospital" in Jabalia.
In recent days, Abu Safiyeh has repeatedly voiced concerns over the hospital's condition as Israeli forces have repeatedly targeted the facility. On Thursday, Abu Safiyeh said that five staff members had been killed in an Israeli strike.
"The world must understand that our hospital is being targeted with the intent to kill and forcibly displace the people inside," he said in a statement on Monday.
The WHO reiterated its call for a ceasefire.
"This raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital comes after escalating restrictions on access for WHO and partners and repeated attacks on or near the facility since early October," the WHO said.
"Such hostilities and the raids are undoing all our efforts and support to keep the facility minimal functional. The systematic dismantling of the health system in Gaza is a death sentence for tens of thousands of Palestinians in need of health care."
The UN rights office has also raised the alarm over Israel’s military assault in North Gaza, citing interference with aid and forced displacement, particularly in Jabalya, Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoun, where it has killed and displaced Palestinians.
Since October 6, Israel has intensified its land and air assault in northern Gaza and imposed an airtight siege preventing food, fuel and medical supplies from reaching the area. Health workers have described the situation in the north as "a genocide within a genocide.
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