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A former Israeli army commander, Herzi Halevi, has confirmed that more than 200,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured in the war in Gaza, and that “not once” in the course of the conflict were military operations inhibited by legal advice.

Halevi stepped down as chief of staff in March after leading the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for the first 17 months of the war, which is now approaching its second anniversary.

The retired general told a community meeting in southern Israel earlier this week that more than 10% of Gaza’s 2.2 million population had been killed or injured – “more than 200,000 people”. That estimate is notable as it is close to the current figures provided by Gaza’s health ministry, which Israeli officials have frequently dismissed as Hamas propaganda, though the ministry figures have been deemed reliable by international humanitarian agencies.

The current official toll is 64,718 Palestinians killed in Gaza and 163,859 injured, since the start of the war on 7 October 2023. Many thousands more are feared dead, with their bodies buried in the rubble. At least 40 people were reported killed on Friday in Israeli strikes, mostly around Gaza City.

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In the early hours of December 27, 2024, the walls of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza shook as Israeli forces dropped bombs nearby. By sunrise, bulldozers had flattened the earth leading to the entrance and Israeli tanks were closing in. Snipers surrounded the complex. Inside, 350 patients, doctors, nurses and their families huddled in the hallways.

“I thought it was the last day of my life,” Abdel Moneim Al-Shrafi, a nurse in his early twenties, told Al Jazeera’s documentary program Fault Lines.

At around 6 a.m., a voice from a quadcopter hovering over the hospital summoned Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the acting director of the Kamal Adwan Medical Complex. His wife of more than 30 years, Albina, watched as he climbed through rubble to reach an Israeli tank a block away. “He went to them in his white coat,” she said. “He was going to them confident that he had not done anything wrong.”

A photo of Dr. Abu Safiya approaching the tank has become an iconic symbol of Israel’s merciless assault on Gaza—and of Palestinian resilience. He returned to the hospital shortly afterwards. By nightfall, Kamal Adwan had been emptied and shut down by the Israeli military. Dr. Abu Safiya and all the men inside were detained.

Dr. Abu Safiya has been in Israeli custody ever since without formal charge or trial in inhumane conditions.

That raid marked the final act in an 80-day siege on Kamal Adwan Hospital, the last standing hospital in northern Gaza. Dr. Abu Safiya became its acting director early in 2024 after its previous director was detained in another raid and the hospital was temporarily closed. “Dr. Hussam felt it was impossible not to have a hospital in the north,” said Rawiya Tanboura, 32, a nurse who had worked with him since 2019. “I think he was afraid that every person that would die in the north would die because he left.” Much of the hospital had been destroyed, but Dr. Abu Safiya reconvened what remained of its staff and reopened it.

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Ukraine reclaimed 62sq km (24sq miles) of territory last month, its commander in chief revealed on Monday, contradicting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent claim to be advancing “in all directions”.

“The month in which the occupiers hoped for their breakthroughs and made maximum efforts for this became the month with comparatively the smallest territorial gains by the enemy in recent times,” Oleksandr Syrskii, commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, claimed on his Telegram messaging service channel.

Most of the gains were in Donetsk, Ukraine’s eastern region, where fighting has been intense for most of the war.

Russian forces there have been gunning for the towns of Dobropillia and Pokrovsk, but lost ground in both directions.

Towards Dobropillia, Russia captured 13.5sq km (5.21sq miles), but lost 25.5sq km (10sq miles), said Syrskii. “In the Pokrovsk direction, their gain was 5sq km (1.9sq miles), while our troops regained control over 26sq km (10sq miles),” Syrskii said.

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Why does the PM insist on blowing up any deal that comes close?” despaired the mother of a hostage held in Gaza, following Israel’s airstrike in Qatar on Tuesday. For anyone who doubted Benjamin Netanyahu’s commitment to the forever war he unleashed after 7 October, the attempt to wipe out Hamas’s ceasefire negotiation team in Doha offered grim confirmation that peace – and the return of Israeli hostages – is low on Mr Netanyahu’s list of current priorities.

Just how close Hamas’s leadership was to endorsing ceasefire proposals backed by Donald Trump – which were being discussed in the capital of an established US ally – is unclear. However, Mr Netanyahu’s strike has ensured that its negotiators will not agree to sit round a table again anytime soon.

Israel swiftly stated that the attack was in response to the Hamas-claimed shooting in Jerusalem on Monday, in which six people died. But it also occurred as the Israeli military ordered the complete evacuation of Gaza City, ahead of a full-scale invasion that will bring further death and destruction to a starving, traumatised population.

It could not be plainer that ending the suffering is not compatible with the goals of Mr Netanyahu, and the far-right allies on which his government depends. But faced with such contemptuous intransigence – and growing evidence that those goals include establishing a “Greater Israel” stretching beyond 1967 borders – the west’s response is pusillanimous and painfully inadequate.

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Brazil's Supreme Court has reached a majority vote to convict former President Jair Bolsonaro, with three of the five justices on the panel voting to find him guilty of attempting a coup to stay in power after losing the 2022 election.

The verdict is historic: It marks the first time a former Brazilian head of state went on trial for attempting to overthrow the government.

The 70-year-old far-right leader, who governed Brazil from 2019 to 2022, and seven alleged co-conspirators faced accusations ranging from plotting a coup, attempting to overthrow Brazil's democratic order, and participating in an armed criminal group.

Justice Cármen Lúcia's guilty vote on Thursday delivered the majority needed to convict Bolsonaro.

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Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has called for Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to be “brought to justice” for “state terrorism” following a deadly Israeli air attack on Doha.

Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Qatar will continue its role as a “trusted and impartial” mediator in the region and beyond, despite statements made by Netanyahu.

Israeli forces continue to bombard the Gaza Strip, killing more than 70 people on Wednesday, while also launching deadly attacks on Yemen that killed at least 35 people.

Humanitarian and human rights organisations have expressed alarm over Israel’s forced evacuation order demanding one million people leave Gaza City, despite unsafe overcrowding further south.M\

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