In Gaza, Israeli troops backed by armed drones have attacked the al-Mawasi refugee camp, which Israel had designated as a so-called humanitarian safe zone. Elsewhere, Israeli strikes have killed at least 10 people in Gaza City, while in northern Gaza, Israel has once again targeted the Kamal Adwan Hospital, knocking out the power generators, deploying explosive robots and planting booby traps around the hospital grounds. The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, condemned Israel’s assault, writing, “Recent attacks have further damaged the oxygen supply, generators, and broken windows and doors of the patients’ rooms. The conditions in the hospital are simply appalling. We urge for the protection of health care and for this hell to stop! Ceasefire!”

Here in the United States, the family of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, the 26-year-old Turkish American activist who was shot dead by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank in September, is criticizing Secretary of State Antony Blinken after talks at the State Department on Monday. Family members have been demanding the U.S. launch an independent investigation into Eygi’s killing but said they left the meeting disappointed and with doubts that they will ever receive justice. Eygi, a recent graduate of the University of Washington, was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers after taking part in a weekly protest against illegal Israeli settlements in the town of Beita. Witnesses say she was fatally shot in the head by an Israeli sniper after the demonstration had already dispersed.

On Monday evening, Michigan Congressmember Rashida Tlaib rallied with Eygi’s family and supporters in a protest outside the White House.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib: “We all know that Ayşenur’s motive was not a 'tragic error,' as the president shamefully called it. It was devastating, I think, for her family to hear him say that. We know that, and she knew, that what the Israeli military did to her, they do to Palestinians every single day.”

Israel says it’s closing its embassy in Ireland over Dublin’s recognition of Palestinian statehood and its backing of South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the World Court. On Monday, Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris responded to the news.

Prime Minister Simon Harris: “You’re all here today asking me about Ireland’s position. What about Israel’s actions? What about what Netanyahu is doing to the innocent children of Gaza? This is — this is the diplomacy of distraction. And I think it is deeply regrettable that they took that decision. They have every right to take that decision to close the embassy. I’d rather it didn’t happen. We will continue to engage, continue to engage diplomatically. But nobody is going to silence Ireland.”

Senior U.S. officials say Turkey is building up its forces along the Turkish border with Syria in possible preparation for a large-scale incursion into territory held by U.S.-backed Syrian Kurds. That’s according to The Wall Street Journal, which reports a Turkish invasion could be imminent near Kobani, a Kurdish-majority city in Syria.

Meanwhile, Syria’s ousted authoritarian president has made his first statement since he fled to Russia to seek political asylum. In a post on the Syrian presidency’s Telegram channel, Bashar al-Assad writes that his departure from Syria was not planned, and argued that Syria has “fallen into the hands of terrorism.” 

Human rights groups are warning mass graves across Syria could contain the bodies of more than 100,000 victims of Bashar al-Assad and his father Hafez. One such site is in the Tadamon district of Damascus, where researchers are scrambling to examine evidence of widespread extrajudicial killings, including mass executions. Hiba Zayadin is Syria researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Hiba Zayadin: “We found human remains, bones, you know, part of a skull, fingers, ribs strewn around the entire area surrounding the mass grave, which shows that, really, you know, a lot more happened here than what we already knew. … What happened in Tadamon here is just one of many others that are being found out across the country, and so it is really urgent that at this time, where we can see that there’s quite a bit of chaos given this transition, that there needs to be quick, urgent securing of all of these areas so that we can really find out the truth about these places.” 

Ukraine says it has killed Russia’s general of nuclear defense by detonating a bomb hidden in his motorbike on a Moscow street. Kyiv says General Igor Kirillov was targeted over the use of banned chemical weapons in Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Separately, Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces said it inflicted heavy damage on North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russia, killing some 50 fighters in recent days in the Ukrainian-occupied Kursk region.

In Madison, Wisconsin, a 15-year-old girl armed with a handgun opened fire inside a private Christian school on Monday, killing a teacher and another teenager before fatally turning the gun on herself. Six others were wounded in Monday’s assault. Police and paramedics were alerted by a second grade student who dialed 911 to report the mass shooting. This is Mireille Jean-Charles, mother of three student survivors.

Mireille Jean-Charles: “We always send prayers. We always send thoughts. And then when are we going to stop doing that? This is not OK. If your kids are at school, they are not OK. If they are at church, they are not OK. If they are outside elsewhere, they are not OK. Well, where are they going to be safe?”

As many as 1,360 children have never been reunited with their parents six years after the previous Trump administration forcibly separated them at the U.S.-Mexico border. That’s according to a new report by Human Rights Watch, which also warns against the return to power of some of the key architects and enforcers of Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, which caused long-lasting harm and trauma to asylum-seeking families. The officials include Tom Homan, who has been nominated by Trump to serve as his so-called border czar. Human Rights Watch has urged the Senate to reject the appointment of any officials involved in the family separation policy, which the group says “constituted enforced disappearance and may have constituted torture.”

Here in New York, the judge overseeing Donald Trump’s hush money and election interference criminal trial has refused to throw out Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts. Judge Juan Merchan rejected arguments by Trump’s lawyers that Trump should not have been prosecuted because of the Supreme Court’s July ruling that shields presidents from prosecution for “official acts.” Instead, Judge Merchan noted that Trump hadn’t even been elected yet in 2016 and was therefore acting in an unofficial capacity when he falsified business records to cover up hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing growing calls to step down after his finance minister quit amid a public spat over how to respond to Trump’s vow to impose a 25% tariff on Canadian goods. Chrystia Freeland, who was also Canada’s deputy prime minister, has been replaced by longtime Trudeau ally, public safety minister Dominic LeBlanc, who recently joined Trudeau to dine with Trump at Mar-a-Lago — a meeting that notably did not include Freeland.

Embattled German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a no-confidence vote Monday, triggering an early election in February of next year. Friedrich Merz, head of the center-right Christian Democratic Union, is widely favored to win Germany’s leadership, as polls also show the far right could gain a record number of votes.

In Brazil, authorities have arrested a military general and close ally of former President Jair Bolsonaro as part of the criminal investigation into an attempted coup to overturn the results of the 2022 presidential election. Walter Braga Netto was Bolsonaro’s running mate in his failed 2022 reelection bid, which Bolsonaro lost to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and served as defense minister. Bolsonaro and Netto are among 37 officials who were indicted in November over the coup plot. Netto’s arrest Saturday came after Brazilian authorities accused him of obstructing the collection of evidence in their investigation.

Back in the U.S., workers at three Amazon facilities have authorized a strike, setting up a potential work stoppage at the height of the holiday season at warehouses in New York, Chicago and Atlanta. The Teamsters union says Amazon failed to come to the bargaining table by a deadline of December 15. Amazon workers at a Staten Island warehouse here in New York became the first ever to win a union election in the U.S. back in March of 2022. This comes as a new investigation led by Senator Bernie Sanders finds Amazon systematically ignores and rejects recommended worker safety measures and deliberately misrepresents workplace injury data.

A federal judge in Florida on Monday sentenced members of a pan-Africanist group known as the “Uhuru 3” to three years of probation, meaning they will avoid prison time in a legal saga that saw the antiwar activists targeted for their vocal criticism of U.S. policy. The members of the African People’s Socialist Party were convicted in September of conspiring with the Russian government to “sow discord” and “interfere” in U.S. elections, which the accused have rejected as “ridiculous.” This is one of the Uhuru 3, Omali Yeshitela, speaking after the sentencing yesterday.

Omali Yeshitela: “I want to say that the only reason this discussion is happening right now about free speech and the judge was given an opportunity to make the ruling and make the statements that he made, the only reason he was given this opportunity is because we fought. If we had laid down, we wouldn’t have had this discussion.”
Click here to see all of our interviews with Omali Yeshitela and our coverage of this case.