Israel bombed Gaza on Monday, worsening dire conditions for civilians as there is no end in sight to the war that has killed more than 20,000 people in Palestinian territory, according to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry.
The Health Ministry said an Israeli airstrike killed at least 70 people in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp on Christmas Eve, AFP news agency reported. Gaza officials said multiple airstrikes killed more than 100 people, according to the Associated Press. Neither figure could be independently confirmed.
It came as Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem, the revered birthplace of Jesus Christ in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, were largely halted amid the conflict, leaving only a handful of worshipers and tourists on the normally busy streets.
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Pope Francis celebrated Christmas with a call for peace, urging the release of the hostages and an end to the war.
“My heart mourns for the victims of the heinous attack of October 7 and I renew my urgent appeal for the release of those still held hostage,” the pope said during his “Urbi et Orbi” blessing. “I call for an end to military operations with their appalling number of innocent civilian casualties and call for a solution to the desperate humanitarian situation by opening up the provision of humanitarian aid.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday the war was exacting a “very high price” as the death toll in the conflict continued to rise. “But we have no choice but to keep fighting,” he said, adding: “It will be a long war.”
The Associated Press said efforts were continuing in Egypt, which borders Gaza to the south, to get the sides to agree to a further humanitarian pause in fighting, but no deal appeared imminent.
Separately, the AP quoted a senior Egyptian official and a European diplomat as saying Egypt had proposed an ambitious plan to end the war. The official said the plan calls for a ceasefire, a gradual release of the hostages and the creation of a Palestinian expert government to administer the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, with Qatar's participation. The proposal does not meet Israel's goal of eliminating Hamas, nor does it appear to be consistent with Israel's stated intention to retain military control of Gaza after the war.
Portal news agency quoted two security sources in Egypt as saying that Hamas and Islamic Jihad had already rejected our proposal.
The war broke out when Hamas militants broke through Gaza's militarized border on October 7 and attacked southern Israeli communities, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 hostages. Israel vowed to crush Hamas and launched a retaliatory military campaign in Gaza, including extensive airstrikes.
A man holds a crying child as search and rescue efforts continue for those buried under rubble after an Israeli airstrike in al Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza, December 25, 2023. Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images
Following the recent attacks on Gaza, rows of bodies wrapped in white bags lined the floor of Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, ahead of a mass burial, AFP reported.
The Israeli army said it was “reviewing the incident” and was “committed to international law, including taking feasible steps to minimize harm to civilians.”
The Israeli army said on Monday that two more of its soldiers had been killed, bringing the number killed since Friday to 17 and to 156 since the Israeli ground attack began on October 27.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 10 members of a family were killed in an Israeli attack on their home in Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip. In another attack, the ministry said 18 people were killed in a nighttime attack on Khan Yunis.
There was no respite on Christmas Day as the army said it continued ground, air and sea operations and struck several Hamas targets, including commanders.
Before dawn, at least 12 people, mostly women and children, were killed in an Israeli attack “on a house” in Gaza's central al-Zuwayda area, the Health Ministry said. AFP could not independently verify the tolls.
In southern Gaza, an AFP correspondent reported heavy bombings overnight in Rafah and Khan Yunis. In the north, live AFPTV footage showed a long plume of smoke stretching across the horizon on Monday morning.
Dozens of Gazans held empty containers and waited on a street in Rafah for food distribution.
“We’re tired of it; that is not life. I swear there has never been a war like this before,” said one of them, Nour Ismail. “Now there is real hunger. My children are dying of hunger.”
Search and rescue efforts continue for those trapped under rubble following an Israeli airstrike on al Maghazi refugee camp in Gaza on December 25, 2023. Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images
Vast areas of Gaza are in ruins and Gaza's 2.4 million residents are suffering from severe shortages of water, food, fuel and medicine, which have only been alleviated by the limited arrival of aid trucks.
According to the United Nations, 80 percent of Gaza residents have been displaced, with many fleeing south and now sheltering from the winter cold in makeshift tents.
The head of the UN refugee agency, Filippo Grandi, called for an end to the suffering.
“A humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza is the only way forward,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “War defies logic and humanity and prepares a future of more hatred and less peace.”
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also reiterated calls for a ceasefire, saying: “The decimation of the health system in Gaza is a tragedy.”
The war has heightened tensions across the Middle East, where Israel faces a range of enemies – Iran-backed armed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen that have expressed support for Hamas.
There were cross-border fires almost daily between Israel and the powerful Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.
And Yemen's Houthi rebels have fired on cargo ships in the Red Sea, prompting the United States to set up a naval task force to fend off missile and drone attacks.
Iran on Monday rejected US allegations that a drone attack was launched from its territory on a Japanese chemical tanker off the coast of India. “Such claims are aimed at obscuring the American government’s full support for the crimes of the Zionist regime (Israel) in Gaza,” State Department spokesman Nasser Kanani said.
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