~6 0~p>"Safe" the Deir al-Balah evacuation zone suffered amid some of the deadliest fighting of the war.
Some of the deadliest fighting of the war continues in the Gaza Strip as Israel expands its offensive, days after the UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for more assistance and take urgent action to ensure a permanent ceasefire.
More than 100 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the center of besieged Palestinian territory on Sunday, December 24, including at least 70 in the bombing of a residential area in the Magazi refugee camp near Deir. al-Balaha, Gaza health officials said.
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Deir al-Balam was also struck, despite the fact that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had previously designated it as an “evacuation zone” for Palestinians fleeing the fighting.
“We were all targets”
The Palestinian Red Crescent released footage from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, showing dazed and bloodied children covered in dust from the rubble. There were also dozens of white body bags.
At the site of the attack on Magaga, people screamed and screamed in the darkness, trying to dig survivors out of the rubble.
“We were all targeted,” Ahmad Turkomani, who lost several family members, including a daughter and grandson, said in an interview with The Associated Press. “There is still no safe place in Gaza.”
The Israeli military said it was reviewing the incident in Magaga.
The latest casualties come as Gaza's health ministry reported on Sunday that Israeli airstrikes had killed 166 Palestinians in 24 hours, one of the deadliest days in history. the entire 12-week conflict.
More than 20,400 Palestinians have been killed since Israel declared war in response to the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, during which the Palestinian militant group killed 1,140 people and captured 240 more taken hostage.
Christmas celebrations in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories were canceled this year in solidarity with the people of Gaza.
Instead of the traditional parade and joyful midnight service in the occupied West Bank town of Bethlehem, where Jesus is said to have been born, Palestinian Christians held a low-key mass with hymns and prayers for peace.
“This day should be a day of love and happiness, but look around, there are no smiles on people’s faces. Bethlehem is sad and dark. There are no decorations, no carols, no Christmas tree,” said the Rev. Louis Salman. “I blame the decision makers who watch what is happening to the children of Gaza and do nothing.”
Israel expanded its operations
For Israel, the war also came at what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on Sunday, December 24, “a very heavy price” – 15 Israeli soldiers have been killed in intense ground clashes with Hamas since Friday, December 22. which proved the total number of combat losses to 156 people.
Hamas cells use improvised explosive devices, ambushes and their extensive network of tunnels to inflict significant losses on the IDF in door-to-door fighting, aided by knowledge of densely populated urban areas.
Despite the long-awaited UN Security Council resolution adopted on Friday, December 22, which called on all parties to take urgent measures for a ceasefire, fighting on the ground intensified after the breakdown of the seven-day truce in early December.
Israel expanded its operations to the southern half of the 365 square meter strip. km, raising concerns among the territory's 2.3 million residents, almost all of whom are already seeking refuge south of the Gaza River after the Israeli army told them it would be safer there.
Humanitarian crisis
The UN warns that a quarter of the population is hungry and the increase in aid since December 17 is only a fraction of what people need to survive the cold and wet winter conditions.
The World Food Program said aid was difficult to distribute due to fighting and shortages of fuel and usable roads. In some cases, desperate people robbed aid trucks.
Negotiations
Over the weekend, Israel's military chief of staff, Hertz Halevi, said his troops had largely achieved operational control in northern Gaza and would expand their offensive further south, but residents still in Gaza City and the Jabaliya camp in the north said the fighting had escalated.
On Monday, December 25, details emerged of a ceasefire proposal put forward by Egypt, a key mediator between Israel and Hamas.
The Qatari-brokered talks that led to a seven-day ceasefire in late November and the release of 100 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons appear to have stalled.
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Israel's security cabinet was expected to discuss Egypt's plan on Monday evening.
Islamic Jihad, a smaller Palestinian militant group allied with Hamas, said a delegation led by its exiled leader Ziyad al-Nahallah was in Cairo on Sunday, December 24. His arrival comes after talks that have included outside Gaza-based Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in recent days, a positive sign that indirect talks are under way.
The three-phase plan calls for first a cessation of hostilities for at least a week and the release of all remaining civilian hostages in Gaza; then a week during which female soldiers will be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons; and finally, a month-long period of negotiations for the release of male soldiers in exchange for the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
“New phase of the war”
On Monday evening it became known that Hamas and Islamic Jihad had rejected Egypt's proposal.
Separately, three security sources said an Israeli airstrike outside the Syrian capital of Damascus killed a senior adviser to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Sources told Reuters that the adviser, known as Sayed Razi Mousavi, was responsible for coordinating the military alliance between Syria and Iran, which backs Hamas in Gaza.
In a statement read on Iranian state television, the Revolutionary Guards said Israel “will pay for this crime.”
Washington, Israel's most important ally, has called on Israeli authorities to move from large-scale air and ground operations in the Gaza Strip to a new phase of the war focused on precisely targeting Hamas leaders.
But despite growing international outcry over the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, including growing criticism from the United States, Netanyahu said Israel would continue until Hamas was completely defeated.
“Until now, we would not have been able to free more than 100 hostages without military pressure,” Netanyahu said during a speech at the Knesset in Jerusalem on Monday. “And we won’t be able to free all the hostages without military pressure.”
The families of more than 100 Israeli hostages still held in Gaza watched Netanyahu's speech from the parliament gallery, many of them holding signs calling on Israel to make a deal and chanting “Immediately!”.
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