AP / January 1, 2024
Officials say most of the victims were women and children as Israel’s war against Hamas continues into the new year
Israeli strikes killed at least 12 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on New Year’s Day, mostly women and children, officials said, as the nearly 15-month war ground on into the new year.
One strike hit a home in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza, the most isolated and heavily destroyed part of the territory, where Israel has waged a major operation since early October. Gaza’s health ministry said seven people had been killed, including a woman and four children, and at least a dozen had been wounded.
Another strike overnight in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza killed a woman and a child, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies.
“Are you celebrating? Enjoy as we die. For a year and a half, we have been dying,” said a man carrying the body of a child amid the flashing lights of emergency vehicles.
Israel’s military said militants had fired rockets from the Bureij area overnight and that it had responded with a strike targeting a militant.
A third strike in the southern city of Khan Younis killed three people, according to the Nasser and European hospitals, which received the bodies.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and abducting about 250. About 100 hostages are still held in Gaza, although at least a third are believed to be dead.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The war has caused widespread destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people, many of them more than once.
Hundreds of thousands of people live in tents on the coast as winter brings frequent rainstorms and temperatures drop below 10C (50F) at night. At least six infants and another person have died of hypothermia, according to the health ministry.
Many displaced Palestinians in central Gaza rely on charity kitchens as their sole source of food as a result of aid restrictions and skyrocketing prices. AP footage showed a long queue of children waiting for rice, the only item served at the kitchen in Deir al-Balah on Wednesday.
“Some of those kitchens close because they don’t receive aid, and others distribute small amounts of food and it’s not enough,” said Umm Adham Shaheen, who is displaced from Gaza City.
Israel’s previous defence minister, Yoav Gallant, fired nearly two months ago amid disagreements with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, resigned on Wednesday from parliament, citing a proposed law that would uphold controversial exemptions from the military draft for ultra-Orthodox men.
Gallant called the proposed law “contrary to the needs of the military and to the security of the state. I cannot be a part of that”.
Military service is compulsory for most Jews. Exemptions for ultra-Orthodox men to pursue studies have generated widespread resentment among the broader public.
Gallant’s surprise firing in November sparked protests across Israel. He and Netanyahu were at odds over the war, with Gallant pushing for a diplomatic deal that would bring back the hostages, while Netanyahu wanted more military pressure on Hamas. Netanyahu replaced Gallant with Katz, a longtime loyalist.
In Wednesday’s address, Gallant said he would remain a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority (PA) on Wednesday suspended the work of Al-Jazeera in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, accusing it of broadcasting incitement and misleading reports.
Israel had already ordered Al-Jazeera to close in the West Bank, but the order had not been strictly enforced. Al-Jazeera and other outlets have been covering the Palestinian Authority’s crackdown in Jenin, where PA forces have clashed with local Palestinian militants in recent weeks, sparking one of the worst armed confrontations between Palestinians in years.
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Israeli strikes on Gaza kill over 20 – including children – on first day of New Year
Jake Johnson
Common Dreams / January 1, 2025
Two refugee camps were bombed as civilians face growing risk of disease and starvation.
Israel’s U.S.-backed assault on the Gaza Strip continued unabated on the first day of 2025, with airstrikes and drone attacks across the besieged enclave killing more than 20 people on Wednesday, including women and children.
One Israeli strike on the Jabiliya refugee camp in northern Gaza killed at least 15 people, including four children and one woman, according to Al Jazeera. Others are still missing under the ruins of the house targeted by Israeli forces, which have systematically destroyed the Palestinian territory’s civilian infrastructure during the nearly 15-month assault.
The Associated Press reported that “another strike overnight in the built-up Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza killed a woman and a child, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies.”
“A third strike early Wednesday in the southern city of Khan Younis killed three people, according to the nearby Nasser Hospital and the European Hospital, which received the bodies,” AP added.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health said Wednesday that the Israeli military’s latest attacks pushed the official death toll in the enclave since October 7, 2023 to 45,553 — a count that experts believe dramatically understates the actual toll.
Israel’s incessant attacks and obstruction of humanitarian assistance have turned Gaza into what one aid group recently called a “death trap,” with no safe place for civilians who are at growing risk of disease and starvation — emergency conditions exacerbated by winter weather.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said Tuesday that six babies have frozen to death in Gaza in recent days.
“More babies will likely die due to the cold, lack of shelter, and basic winter supplies,” the organization warned. “Blankets, mattresses, and warm clothes are sitting outside Gaza waiting for approval to get in. The siege must be lifted.”
Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner-general, said Tuesday that “horrors continue” in Gaza “under the world’s watch,” pointing to Israel’s killing of aid workers, attacks on U.N. shelters, and torture of detainees.
“In northern Gaza, since the intensification of the military operation nearly three months ago, there has been a significant increase in attacks on our staff, buildings, and operations,” said Lazzarini. “I reiterate my call for independent investigations into the systematic disregard for the protection of humanitarian workers, premises, and operations. This cannot become the new standard and impunity cannot become the new norm.”
Jake Johnson is a staff writer for Common Dreams
