For today, links to eight reports: from Reuters, the Associated Press, Middle East Eye, Middle East Monitor, and National Public Radio; others are accessible by clicking on their names or initials below. (SYRIA and UKRAINE entries for this date are HERE and HERE.) — MCM

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Israel keeps up Gaza bombardment as ceasefire talks intensify. From Reuters.  U.S. and Arab mediators are working round-the-clock to hammer out a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, sources close to the talks said, while in the Gaza Strip medics said Israeli strikes had killed 26 Palestinians today. READ MORE . . . Click HERE for report from AP.

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Human Rights Watch says Israel’s deprivation of water in Gaza is an act of genocide. From Reuters.  THE HAGUE — Human Rights Watch said today that Israel has killed thousands of Palestinians in Gaza by denying them clean water which it says legally amounts to acts of genocide and extermination. READ MORE . . . Click HERE and HERE for reports from AP and Middle East Eye.

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UN adopts resolution affirming Palestinian right to self-determination by overwhelming majority. From Middle East Monitor. By an overwhelming 172-vote majority, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution on Tuesday affirming the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination. Israel, the U.S., and five other countries opposed it. Eight countries abstained. READ MORE . . .

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FROM DEC. 18  Palestinians in Occupied West Bank worry attacks will go up when Trump takes office. Reported by Michele Kelemen | NPR  Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank are worried about an escalation of attacks from right wing settlers who are feeling emboldened with a new ally coming to the White House. Click HERE to listen and, later, read.

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In shattered Yarmouk, the Palestinians of Syria mourn their ‘paradise’ lost to war, by Daniel Hilton and Omar al-Aswad | Middle East Eye  DAMASCUS — Yarmouk, a neighborhood in Syria’s capital city that had transformed from an informal tented community of Palestinian refugees to a district in the Syrian capital’s south that attracted people from all walks of life, is today unrecognisable. READ MORE . . .