Updates: Israel keeps attacking Gaza, kills two minors, elderly woman

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Here is our story on the killing of a Palestinian child by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.

Watch our report here about Gaza being buried under millions of tonnes of rubble.

Our overview of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal is here.

This live page will close soon. Here are the main developments of the day:

• The first meeting of a Palestinian technocratic committee tasked with managing the day-to-day governance of post-war Gaza has begun in Cairo, according to Egyptian media.
• At least 12 Palestinians have been killed and 18 injured in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, up to 09:00 GMT on Friday, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
• Germany is hoping for a seat on the so-called “board of peace” for Gaza, according to the country’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul.
• The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has accused Israeli forces of opening fire with small-calibre weapons at one of its positions in the southern Lebanese town of Kfarchouba.
• The European Union (EU) has urged Israel to discontinue its E1 settlement project, which aims to link thousands of illegal settlements in occupied East Jerusalem to the expanding Maale Adumim settlement bloc in the occupied West Bank.

Nivine Ahmad, a 47-year-old woman living in a camp for the displaced in southern Gaza’s al-Mawasi area, says Palestinians in the war-torn enclave “miss real life”.

She said the announcement of the formation of the 15-member technocratic committee led her to imagine returning to Gaza City.

“I pictured living with my family in a prefabricated unit, with electricity and water instead of our bombed home,” she said.

“Only then will I feel that the war is over,” she added. In the meantime, she urged the world to put itself in the shoes of Palestinians.

“We only have hope and patience,” she said.

From his tent in Gaza City, Mahmoud Abdel Aal said residents were frustrated and worried because nothing had changed in the Palestinian territory since the start of the US-brokered ceasefire’s second phase.

“There is no difference between the war and the ceasefire, nor between the first and second phase of the deal: strikes continue every day,” Abdel Aal told the AFP news agency. “Everyone is worried and frustrated because nothing’s changed.”

Most residents interviewed by AFP said they were sceptical about recent announcements regarding the formation of the so-called “Board of Peace”, an entity chaired by Trump and supposed to oversee reconstruction, and a Palestinian technocratic committee with which it is to work.

“No one is concerned for us,” said Hossam Majed, who is living in the ruins of his home in Gaza City. “The whole world meets in Cairo to talk about Gaza, but they can’t even enter it,” he told AFP. “Israel will use the pretext of handing over the last body [of a captive], then the weapons [of Hamas], and the second phase will stretch over additional years,” he said.

Hamas returned 47 of 48 captives it was supposed to hand over under the terms of the first phase, and has yet to commit to disarming as is planned under the second phase.

Israeli forces have carried out a series of incursions across Hebron governorate in the occupied West Bank, spanning the towns of Idhna, Beit Ummar and ad-Dhahiriya, as well as the Arroub refugee camp, according to the Wafa news agency.

In central ad-Dhahiriya, Israeli forces fired stun grenades and tear gas at residents, while in the Arroub camp, their bullet shrapnel injured a resident, said Wafa.

Israeli forces detained three Palestinians during a raid on the Khalail al-Luz area, southeast of Bethlehem, according to the Wafa news agency.

According to Wafa, Israeli soldiers stormed the neighbourhood, sealed off the area and raided several homes.

Germany is hoping for a seat on the so-called “Board of Peace” for Gaza, according to the country’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul.

Germany is prepared to assume responsibility in this “important institution”, Wadephul said, after talks in Berlin with his Austrian counterpart Beate Meinl-Reisinger.

“We expect concrete talks to take place very soon and perhaps also an invitation,” he said.

Wadephul also expressed hopes that the second phase of the Gaza peace process initiated under US mediation will now begin.

“The establishment of this Board of Peace is necessary for this,” he noted.

A group of armed Israeli settlers have attacked Palestinians near the town of Kafr Nima in the occupied West Bank, according to the Wafa news agency.

The settlers pursued Palestinian families while they were hiking near the town, said the agency. It noted that Israeli forces provided cover to the settlers by firing tear gas at the Palestinians.

The incident adds to a series of settler attacks targeting Palestinians today, including one that injured an elderly man near Hebron.

In the final days of their months-long hunger strike, three young pro-Palestine activists on remand – convicted of no crime – were confronted with their mortality in the confines of their prison cells.

Heba Muraisi, 31, who refused food for 73 days, was suffering with a level of pain so severe that sitting felt unbearable. At 49kg (108lb), her body wasting away, there were fears her organs were shutting down. Her memory declined and she had muscle spasms, a sign of possible neurological damage.

But until they announced the end of their hunger strikes on Wednesday amid their rapidly collapsing health, Muraisi and prisoners Kamran Ahmed, 28, and Lewie Chiaramello, 23, were determined to continue.

A Londoner who worked as a florist and lifeguard, Muraisi told Al Jazeera this week that she had resigned herself to the idea of death but wanted to keep refusing food in protest because she was “finally being heard”.

Ahmed, in a statement sent to Al Jazeera, has said ending the hunger strike after 65 days felt “bittersweet”.

Read the full story here.

Israeli troops have shot and killed a Palestinian child in the occupied West Bank, as a wave of intensified Israeli military and settler violence across the territory continues.

Mohammed Na’san, 14, was killed on Friday after Israeli forces stormed and opened fire in the village of al-Mughayyir, near Ramallah, assaulting residents.

Na’san was shot in the back and chest, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

The Israeli military said in a statement that troops fatally shot Na’san because he was “running towards them carrying a rock”.

The killing came after Israeli settlers, under the protection of the Israeli army, had earlier on Friday stormed an area south of al-Mughayyir and fired live rounds, according to Wafa.

Read the full story here.

Lindsey Graham, a pro-Trump lawmaker who is a vocal advocate of US intervention in Iran, says he has travelled to Israel, where is expected to meet with Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders.

In a post on X, Graham said he would see “how we can build upon the momentum created by President Trump” on Iran. He said that Iranians are “right to demand an end to” to the government there in the wake of a deadly crackdown on protests.

“We cannot allow this historic moment to pass,” said Graham.

The Senator’s comments come several days after Trump appeared to soften his rhetoric on Iran, after previously threatening US intervention, and amid reports that Trump had relayed to Iran that he did not plan to attack.

Graham, however, suggested the US administration could still go ahead with an attack, describing reports that Trump had decided otherwise as “beyond inaccurate”.

I just landed in Israel, the one and only Jewish State, and America’s strongest ally and friend since its founding.
 
If you think I flew all the way to Israel after having not slept much in days to make sure we do not hold the ayatollah’s murderous regime accountable for the…

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) January 16, 2026