No end in sight to Gaza war
Zionists pound Gaza on Christmas as strikes kill dozens
GAZA: The Zionist entity on Monday said it was “intensifying the fighting” against Hamas in Gaza, where relentless strikes across the Palestinian territory exacerbated the dire conditions for civilians in the war’s 12th week. As war raged, Christmas festivities in Bethlehem were effectively scrapped in the Zionist-occupied West Bank. The city’s usually vibrant streets had only a handful of worshippers and tourists.
The Zionist entity’s military campaign in Gaza, including extensive aerial bombardment and siege, has killed at least 20,674 people, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry. Four major Zionist strikes since Sunday killed more than 100 people, the ministry said. But Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Monday after visiting Gaza, “We’re not stopping,” according to a statement from his Likud party. “We’re intensifying the fighting in the coming days,” he told party members.
Later, addressing parliament during a special session on the 129 captives the Zionist entity says remain in Gaza, Netanyahu was booed by families awaiting their loved ones’ return after 80 days in captivity. “Now! Now!” relatives chanted as Netanyahu said Zionist forces needed “more time” to increase military pressure on Hamas, which he argued would help to secure the captives’ release.
In Gaza, the health ministry said a Zionist air strike killed at least 70 people on Christmas Eve at the AlMaghazi refugee camp established in 1949. Rows of victims’ bodies, shrouded in white bags, lined the ground at Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, ahead of a mass funeral. The Zionist entity has been under increasing pressure from its allies to protect civilians during its military campaign. Speaking with Netanyahu on Saturday, US President Joe Biden “emphasized the critical need” for such protection, the White House said.
Zeyad Awad, a resident of AlMaghazi, said there was no evacuation warning before the strike that caused “extensive, enormous destruction and
panic in the hearts of my children”. The health ministry said 10 members of one family were killed in a Zionist strike in Jabalia camp, northern Gaza, and 18 people died in an overnight bombardment of Khan Yunis in the south. Christmas Day brought no respite, with the army saying it continued its ground, air and sea operations and struck several Hamas targets, including commanders.
Before dawn, a Zionist strike “targeting a house” in central Gaza’s Al-Zuwaida area, near Al-Maghazi, killed at least 12 people, mostly women and children, the Gaza health ministry said. In southern Gaza, an AFP correspondent reported heavy bombings through the night in Khan Yunis and Rafah.
Grasping empty containers, dozens of Gazans waited on a street in Rafah for food to be distributed. “Now there is real hunger. My children are dying of hunger,” said one of them, Nour Ismail. Vast areas of Gaza lie in ruins and its 2.4 million people have endured dire shortages of water, food, fuel and medicine, alleviated only by the limited arrival of aid trucks. An estimated 1.9 million Gazans have been displaced, according to the UN, many fleeing south and crowded into shelters or makeshift tents in the winter cold.
“A humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza is the only way forward,” said the head of the UN refugee agency, Filippo Grandi. The World Health Organization said it led missions to barely functioning hospitals in northern Gaza at the weekend. It described growing desperation and starving people stripping an aid truck of supplies. “Everyone we speak to is hungry,” said Sean Casey, a WHO emergency coordinator. “There’s the risk of famine.”
The Zionist entity lashed out at the UN on Monday over its response to the war. Foreign Minister Eli Cohen accused the world body of “hypocrisy” and said its chief Antonio Guterres “legitimized war crimes”, adding his ministry would not extend one UN employee’s entry visa and would refuse entry for another.
Netanyahu on Sunday said the war was exacting a “very heavy price” on the Zionist entity’s military. The army on Monday announced two more deaths among its ranks, bringing to 156 the number of troops killed since the Zionist entity’s ground assault began on Oct 27.