Palestinian death toll in Gaza reaches 21,320

The number of Palestinian deaths due to Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 21,320 with 55,603 injured, said the Gaza Health Ministry on Thursday.

The ministry's spokesman Ashraf al-Qedra said in a statement that at least 210 people have been killed in Gaza over the past 24 hours.

He said that the Israeli army deliberately targeted 104 ambulances and 142 health institutions in the Gaza Strip, and called on international institutions to intervene to protect health institutions and restart the disabled hospitals.

Israeli forces raided foreign exchange and money transfer agencies in Ramallah and other locations in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, seizing millions of dollars that were allegedly meant to finance Hamas, according to Reuters, citing the military.

An Israeli military statement said police, army and Shin Bet security personnel carried out the raids across the West Bank, making 21 arrests in Ramallah as well as Tulkarm and Jenin, in the northern West Bank and Hebron in the south.

Meanwhile, Egypt has put forth a framework of proposed steps toward ending the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip to relevant parties, Egypt's State Information Service (SIS) said Thursday.

Diaa Rashwan, chairman of the SIS, said in a statement that the framework, which includes "three successive and linked stages, ending with a ceasefire," was drafted after Egypt listened to the views of "all parties concerned with it."

Egypt, upon receiving responses from the parties, would announce the proposal in detail, he said.

Mideast tensions flare

A UN report said the human rights situation in the West Bank was rapidly deteriorating and urged Israel to "end unlawful killings" against the Palestinian population.

The bloodiest ever Gaza war has also sharply heightened tensions between Israel and its long-time arch foe Iran, which supports armed groups across the Middle East, according to AFP. 

The funeral for senior Iranian commander Seyyed Razi Mousavi, who was recently assassinated in an Israeli attack in Syria, was held in Iran's capital Tehran on Thursday.

A number of people including Iranian officials took part in the ceremony to bid farewell to the veteran member of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

The participants held pictures of Mousavi and late Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike near the Baghdad airport in Iraq in January 2020, and chanted anti-Israel and anti-U.S. slogans.

Speaking at the ceremony, IRGC's Chief Commander Hossein Salami vowed that Iran will definitely take revenge on Israel for killing the commander, according to the Iranian Students' News Agency.

In a statement on Monday, the IRGC confirmed the death of Mousavi, who served as a "military adviser" in the Syrian capital of Damascus, vowing that Israel "will pay the price for this crime."

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Thursday condemned the United States for its nonstop arms delivery to Israel for use against the Palestinians, reported the semi-official Fars news agency.

Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks at a gathering in the north-central Iranian city of Qom while commenting on the developments in the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing Israeli attacks, the report said.

"Today, American arms are being delivered to Tel Aviv from all bases across the region without an hour of pause. In addition to these weapons, certain (military) equipment are directly sent from the United States to Cyprus and thence to Tel Aviv," he said.

A fresh Israeli missile attack targeted the outskirts of the Syrian capital of Damascus on Thursday night, triggering a response from the Syrian air defense system, reported the Syrian state-owned TV.

The Syrian army said in a statement that the "Israeli enemy" carried out an aerial attack from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, targeting some points in the southern region, without elaborating on the targeted sites.

It added that the Syrian air defense forces intercepted most of them, with losses limited to material damages.

Humanitarian crisis worsens in Gaza

"Every day is a struggle for survival, finding food and finding water," Thomas White, Gaza director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), was quoted as saying on X on Thursday.

"Gaza is grappling with catastrophic hunger. 40% of the population are now at risk of famine," the UNRWA said.

"The World Health Organization (WHO) is extremely concerned this fresh displacement of people will further strain health facilities in the south, which are already struggling to meet the population's immense needs," Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the occupied Palestinian territory, said on Wednesday.

According to the latest WHO assessments, Gaza has 13 partially functioning hospitals, two minimally functioning ones, and 21 that are not functioning at all. 

On Thursday, a British naval ship which took on a load of humanitarian aid for Gaza failed to deliver it and docked in Malta instead for security concerns, Cyprus News Agency (CNA) reported.

The British ship, the RFA Lyme Bay, was carrying 80 tonnes of aid, mostly tents donated by Britain and medicines from Cyprus. It sailed from Larnaca port for Gaza on December 16.

However, after several days it diverted its course from the eastern Mediterranean region over security concerns, the Cypriot government sources said.

Cypriot state radio CyBC reported on Thursday that a British Defense Ministry spokesman had refused to comment on the actual movements of the ship, but repeated that the delivery of the humanitarian aid depended on all parties involved in the Gaza conflict giving their approval.

(With input from agencies)