Israeli strikes continue this Monday, December 25, in Gaza, where civilians are still on the verge of starvation, after a dismal Christmas for the Palestinians in Bethlehem in the West Bank, tarnished by the weight of more than two months of war.
The Gaza Strip saw no respite during Christmas Eve. Early Monday, a bombing killed 12 people near the small village of Al-Zawaida (center), according to the Hamas health ministry. During the night, a bombing in Khan Younes (south) left at least 18 dead, he added in a press release. The center of the territory also suffered around fifty successive strikes. The weekend was particularly deadly in this overpopulated strip of land controlled since 2007 by Hamas, an organization considered terrorist by Israel, the United States and the European Union.
At least 70 people were killed in a strike Sunday on the al-Maghazi refugee camp, according to the Hamas government. A report which could not be independently confirmed by AFP.
On the Israeli side, more than fifteen soldiers have died in the last three days. On Monday morning, the army announced the death of two more soldiers, bringing to 156 its casualties since its troops operated on the ground in Gaza.
“We are paying a very heavy price for the war, but we have no choice but to continue fighting,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted on Sunday. “We are facing monsters,” he insisted in his Christmas message, addressed to Christians around the world. “This is a battle, not only of Israel against these barbarians, but also a battle of civilization against barbarism.”
No Christmas spirit
“In the middle of the war, no one feels the spirit of the holidays,” sighed Fadi Sayegh, a Palestinian Christian who spent New Year’s Eve stuck with his dialysis in a hospital in Khan Younes (south), where the Israeli army intensified its operations in recent days. “We pray to God to quickly end this war, to stop these massacres,” added this refugee, separated from his family remaining in Gaza City.
The conflict has forced 1.9 million residents to flee their homes, or 85% of the population according to the UN. Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, after the attack of unprecedented scale and violence carried out by the Islamist movement on October 7, which left around 1,140 people dead, mostly civilians, according to the latest official Israeli figures. . That day, Palestinian commandos also kidnapped around 250 people, 129 of whom remain detained in Gaza, according to Israel.
“We must stop these hostilities and turn the page,” pleaded Sunday the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who came to celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem in the West Bank with a black and white keffiyeh around his neck. In this city where Jesus was born, according to Christian tradition, Christmas celebrations have been largely canceled by the Palestinian municipality and sadness dominates.
Opposite the Basilica of the Nativity, no nativity scene this year, but an allusion to the slaughter suffered by fellow citizens of Gaza: Mary and Joseph are represented as gray statues, in the middle of the rubble and behind barbed wire. “It’s very difficult to celebrate something while our people are dying,” Nicole Najjar, an 18-year-old student, told AFP.
“Losing logic”
“Our heart, this evening, is in Bethlehem,” Pope Francis declared during Christmas mass in Rome, denouncing the “losing logic of war.”
In Rafah, in the south of Gaza, Israa Abou Al-Awf breaks down after a strike on Sunday on the residential neighborhood where she is taking refuge. “Enough suffering! Let’s stop making these children suffer, let’s stop imposing this painful future on them,” begs this 27-year-old woman to AFP. “I tell you, Netanyahu, every child (…) will grow up wanting to avenge his father, his mother, his uncle. (…) An entire army will rise up to take revenge on Israel again, let’s stop this !”
The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire: most hospitals there are out of service and in the next six weeks, the entire population risks experiencing a high level of food insecurity, possibly leading to famine, according to the ‘UN. “The decimation of Gaza’s health system is a tragedy,” World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus lamented on Sunday.
Despite the vote on Friday by the UN Security Council of a resolution calling for the “immediate” and “large-scale” delivery of humanitarian aid, this has not seen a significant increase. The Jordanian army announced Sunday evening that its air forces had dropped aid to around 800 people taking refuge in St. Porphyry Church in northern Gaza.
For their part, Egyptian and Qatari mediators are still trying to negotiate a new truce, after a seven-day break in fighting at the end of November, which allowed the release of 105 hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners as well as the entry into Gaza of important humanitarian aid convoys. According to a source within Islamic Jihad, the leader of this Palestinian armed movement allied with Hamas arrived at the head of a delegation in Cairo.
Acts of torture?
On Sunday, the Israeli army announced that it had discovered “an arms depot adjacent to schools, a mosque and a medical center”, which contained “explosive belts suitable for children, dozens of mortar shells, hundreds of grenades and intelligence equipment. As part of its operations, it indicates that it arrests “individuals suspected of being involved in terrorist activities”. “People who are found not to participate in terrorist activities are released,” she assures.
But Palestinians released after being arrested in the Gaza Strip told AFP they had been tortured, which the army denies. “They handcuffed our hands behind our backs for two days. We weren’t allowed to eat or drink, nor were we allowed to use the toilet, just beatings and beatings,” said Nayef Ali, 22 years. Hamas on Sunday called on the International Committee of the Red Cross to investigate the arrests.