At least 46 Palestinians were martyred Israeli attacks In various parts of the Gaza Strip, while international mediators continued talks aimed at reaching a truce and exchanging prisoners for prisoners.

Medical sources provided Al Jazeera with the death toll on Wednesday in Gaza, where Israeli forces also launched several raids across the occupied West Bank, killing three people.

At least 45,936 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian officials, and 109,274 others have been wounded since Israel began its war following an October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel. This attack led to the deaths of at least 1,139 people, according to Al Jazeera’s statistics based on Israeli statistics, and about 250 others were captured.

Tariq Abu Azoum, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Deir al-Balah, said that the majority of the Israeli attacks on Wednesday were concentrated in the northern Gaza Strip, especially around Gaza City.

He added that an Israeli raid on a park in Gaza City resulted in the deaths of five people, and an attack on a school housing displaced people in Jabalia led to the deaths of four. In central Gaza, survivors said that at least 10 people were killed in a raid on a family home in the Bureij refugee camp, including women and children.

Abu Azoum said: “There has been an intensification of air strikes since the early hours of this morning,” adding that the Israeli attacks also wounded four communications employees who were working in maintaining landline Internet lines in Gaza City.

He said: “What we have seen in the past few hours is a very devastating situation, especially in Gaza City, which has been the center of military attacks, especially in densely populated areas.”

Hospitals are out of service

Rawiya Taboura, a nurse at the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, north of Gaza, told Al Jazeera that the health facility was subjected to direct Israeli bombing, “targeting the walls of the hospital and its surroundings” and preventing the delivery of aid.

The Gaza Ministry of Health said earlier this week that the three main hospitals in northern Gaza remained out of service due to the fighting, with Kamal Adwan Hospital director, Abu Safiya, still detained by Israeli forces.

Taboura said, “Unfortunately, no one has yet been able to provide assistance due to the difficult situation outside the hospital and the difficulty of coordination with the relevant authorities.”

She added: “We were unable to provide aid to the hospital.” “The situation in the hospital is very tragic.”

To the south, Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis announced that it would stop operations at 5pm (15:00 GMT) on Wednesday due to fuel shortages, and Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Deir al-Balah reported running out of essential medicines. And supplies.

On Wednesday, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies was among the international relief organizations that called for unhindered access to Gaza. Relief organizations have repeatedly accused Israel of obstructing aid access.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said the harsh winter weather conditions are “exacerbating intolerable conditions” in Gaza, where many families have been left “clinging to survival in makeshift camps, without even the most basic necessities, such as blankets.” .

Meanwhile, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that at least 74 children were killed in Gaza in the first week of 2025, “suffering from attacks, deprivation and increased exposure to the cold.”

This number includes eight infants and newborns who died due to hypothermia in recent days.

The agency said there are more than a million children among the displaced in Gaza, and many of them live in makeshift tents with little protection from the elements.

“Heinous crimes”

As fighting intensified in Gaza, Israeli raids continued across the occupied West Bank.

The Commission for the Affairs of Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners and the Palestinian Prisoners Club said today, Wednesday, that 45 Palestinians have been arrested since Tuesday evening in the governorates of Hebron, Nablus, Tubas, Tulkarm, Ramallah, and Jerusalem.

In Bethlehem, a number of teachers and students were injured after inhaling tear gas, which was fired by Israeli occupation soldiers at Kisan School, east of Bethlehem, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

The tear gas was reportedly in response to some students throwing stones at Israeli military vehicles.

On the other hand, three Palestinians, including two children, were martyred in an Israeli air strike on the town of Tammoun, today, Wednesday, in Tubas Governorate.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the two dead children were Reda Bsharat (9 years old) and Hamza Bsharat (10 years old). She described the strike as a “heinous crime.”

The ministry also said that “Israel’s implementation of its aggressive policies in the West Bank” is a “flagrant violation of international law and the Geneva Conventions.”

Ceasefire talks continue

As the fighting continued, mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the United States were making efforts to broker an agreement between Israel and Hamas that would see a ceasefire and the exchange of Israeli prisoners held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.

Speaking from Paris, France on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed that an agreement was “very close.”

However, previous efforts to secure Athar have repeatedly failed, with both Hamas and Israel accusing each other of changing terms.

Washington has also been criticized for not imposing more influence on its “tough” ally Israel, to which it provides billions of dollars in military aid.

Meanwhile, US envoy Donald Trump-elect to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, said on Tuesday that he would travel to Doha, Qatar, to join the negotiations. He expressed his hope that an agreement would be reached before Trump takes office on January 20.

For his part, Trump spoke at a press conference on Tuesday He told reporters And that “all hell will break loose” if an agreement is not reached by the time he takes office. He declined to specify what that meant, or whether it could mean increased US involvement in the conflict.

Later on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz said that the bodies of prisoners Yousef and Hamza Ziadeh had been recovered in Gaza.