The United Nations warns Israeli attacks on hospitals have left Gaza’s medical system on the brink of total collapse, with a catastrophic effect on Palestinians’ access to healthcare. The new report by the U.N. human rights office documents 136 Israeli attacks on 39 medical facilities. It was released just days after Israeli forces raided the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza last Friday, destroying much of the facility and arresting staff and patients at gunpoint. There are growing calls internationally for Israel to release the hospital’s director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, after he was abducted by Israeli forces and reportedly taken to a military detention camp with his leg badly injured. Amnesty International said on social media, “Hospitals and health workers are not targets. The international community, especially Israel’s allies, must act to bring an end to Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.” This comes as at least seven Palestinians, including six babies, living in displaced camps in Gaza have died from the cold, and relentless winter rain storms have flooded thousands of tents of forcibly displaced people. Sabreen Abu Shanab is a displaced mother of three struggling to keep her family warm and fed in a tattered tent encampment in Deir al-Balah.

Sabreen Abu Shanab: “It rained. And although it was mild and not heavy rain, look what happened to us! We were flooded. The wooden poles of the tent broke. We barely fixed them. The water seeped inside and into the mattresses and my children’s clothes. They were sleeping and soaked wet to their underwear. I swear, everything is soaked — the blankets, the pillows, everything.”

Israel’s military says it intercepted a missile fired toward Tel Aviv by Yemen’s Houthis late on Monday. The missile triggered air raid sirens and halted takeoffs and landings at Ben-Gurion Airport for about an hour. It was the fifth such attack by Houthis over the past week, coming just days after Israel bombed the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah and the capital Sana’a, killing at least six people and injuring dozens. Among those who narrowly survived the attack on Sana’a was Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, who was just meters away from a blast from an Israeli bomb dropped on the airport. On Monday, Dr. Tedros called on both the Houthis and the Israelis to stop their attacks.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: “The attack inflicted needless death, injury, panic, chaos and damage, and was another reminder of the growing threat faced by civilians, humanitarians and health workers in war zones around the world. This must stop.”

On Monday, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations delivered what he called a final warning to Yemen’s Houthis, saying they could soon “share the same miserable fate” as Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

France’s defense ministry says its warplanes bombed Islamic State positions in central Syria on Sunday. The French attacks follow several U.S. strikes on IS positions following the ouster of longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad in early December.

In related news, Syria’s new foreign minister has held his first diplomatic meetings. Asaad Hassan al-Shibani was named Syria’s top diplomat on December 21 by the interim government. On Monday, he welcomed Kuwait’s foreign minister for talks about ending international sanctions and pledging closer ties to countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Al-Shibani also met with Ukraine’s foreign minister to discuss strengthening ties after decades of Russian support for Bashar al-Assad’s rule.

Asaad Hassan al-Shibani: “There will be strategic contributions and partnerships between us and Ukraine on political, economic and social levels. We also have scientific collaborations that we will restart with Ukraine. We once again welcome the Ukrainian foreign minister.”

The Syrian and Ukrainian diplomats also discussed the fate of a Russian naval base and air base in Syria — Russia’s only two military bases outside of the former Soviet Union.

Russia and Ukraine have completed a prisoner swap, repatriating more than 300 prisoners of war in a deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates ahead of the start of the new year. On the Ukrainian side, the swap included some prisoners who had been held for over two years, including soldiers who defended Snake Island in the Black Sea and others who held out for months defending the southern city of Mariupol from Russia’s invasion.

Serhii: “My son is 5 years old now. The last time I saw him, he was 2 years old. That’s why my son probably didn’t recognize me. I used to have a beard and hair. He was 2 years old. I lost 44 pounds.”

Ukrainian officials say Moscow has released nearly 4,000 soldiers and civilians in deals with Kyiv since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

President Biden on Monday announced another $2.5 billion in U.S. military aid to Ukraine. The package includes air defense missiles; munitions for rocket and artillery systems; anti-tank weapons and more. Separately, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced $3.4 billion in economic assistance to Ukraine. Since Russia’s invasion nearly three years ago, Congress has approved $175 billion in total assistance to Ukraine. Biden is rushing aid before President-elect Trump takes office in three weeks; on the campaign trail, Trump expressed skepticism about sending more aid and repeatedly pledged to end the war in his first 24 hours.

In Kenya, police in Nairobi on Monday fired tear gas at protesters demanding the release of dozens of government critics who have been abducted by armed groups in recent months. Protesters blame Kenya’s police and intelligence service for the disappearances. Human rights groups have condemned the extrajudicial arrests carried out as Kenyan President William Ruto cracks down on nationwide anti-government protests. Ruto previously called the disappearances “fake news.” Over 50 anti-abduction protesters were arrested Monday, including opposition lawmaker Okiya Omtatah.

The Pentagon has repatriated one of the first Guantánamo Bay prisoners to Tunisia after more than two decades of incarceration without trial. Ridah bin Saleh al-Yazidi had been held at the notorious U.S. military prison in Cuba since it opened in 2002. He was abducted by Pakistani soldiers near the Afghan border in 2001 and accused of being an al-Qaeda fighter, but was never charged with a crime. Al-Yazidi was cleared for release more than a decade ago. Twenty-six prisoners remain at Guantánamo Bay, 16 years after Barack Obama pledged to close the prison in his first year as president.

A federal appeals court has rejected President-elect Trump’s attempt to overturn a 2023 jury verdict that found him liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll, and then defaming her as Trump repeatedly denied the accusations. At the time, a jury awarded Carroll $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages. Carroll accused Trump of raping her in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s. Trump has continued his attacks on Carroll, recently reposting a photo of Carroll on his Truth Social platform with the caption, “Should a woman go to jail for falsely accusing a man of rape?”

Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders have announced the closure of all national and international NGOs that currently employ women. The latest crackdown comes two years after Taliban officials issued a rule that banned Afghan women from working at NGOs, including humanitarian relief agencies, under the threat of losing their license. This also comes as the Taliban has prohibited the construction of new residential buildings with windows that overlook areas where women might be seen sitting or standing. Taliban officials also said existing windows with such views should be blocked. A Taliban government spokesperson said in a statement, “Seeing women working in kitchens, in courtyards or collecting water from wells can lead to obscene acts.”

Press freedom groups are demanding that Iran release Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, who was arrested in Tehran on December 19 and has since been held in solitary confinement inside Tehran’s Evin Prison. Sala, who works for the newspaper Il Foglio and an Italian podcast company, had entered Iran on a regular journalist visa. Just days before her arrest, she filed this report from Tehran.

Cecilia Sala: “I have returned to Iran, the place I most wanted to come back to. Since the last time I was here, many things have changed. One is that hundreds of thousands of women no longer wear the veil, or at least not in the way the law dictates, and they are not afraid of a foreigner like me taking their picture or of the Chinese-made smart cameras scattered throughout the city scanning their faces and sending alerts to the police.”

Iranian authorities have for the first time confirmed the arrest of Cecilia Sala, amid signs they may be angling for a prisoner swap. A day before Sala’s arrest, police in Italy detained a 38-year-old Iranian man accused of working with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, for possible extradition to the United States.