According to the latest Palestinian state news agency Wafa, Israeli bombings kill Palestinians during the night in Khan Younis, Bureij, Jihr al-Deek, and Nuseirat.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported on Tuesday that 250 people were killed and twice as many were wounded in the previous 24 hours across multiple attacks that include at least 70 people at the al-Maghazi refugee camp.
In a speech to lawmakers Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said that Israel will not succeed in freeing the remaining captives held in Gaza “without military pressure”.
“We are expanding the fight in the coming days and this will be a long battle,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu has also said war will not stop and he is ready to encourage Palestinians in Gaza to leave the enclave, according to Israeli media outlets. Aljazeera is reporting Hamas has condemned the statement.
More than 100 Israeli hostages are thought to remain in captivity in Gaza by Hamas.
To date, more than 20,674 people have been killed and 54,536 wounded in Israeli attacks since October 7. The revised death toll from Hamas’s attack on Israel stands at 1,139 while 1.9 million people have been displaced since this new page of the war between Palestinians and Israelis began.
On Friday, the Security Council adopted a resolution on the crisis in Gaza, with 13 votes in favour, and the US and Russia abstaining. The resolution, among other points, demands immediate, safe, and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance at scale directly to the Palestinian civilian population throughout the Gaza Strip.
But the Palestinian Red Crescent Society tells Al Jazeera that its crews face violations by Israeli forces daily in Gaza, adding that aid entering the enclave is not enough to meet the needs of civilians.
This comes just one day after Christmas, where in Bethlehem, the Lutheran Church made global headlines for its Christmas nativity scene. The scene reflects the reality of children living and being born in Palestine today, placing the symbolic Baby Jesus in a manger of rubble and destruction. Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac’s Christmas sermon went viral.
“If Jesus were to be born today, he would be born under the rubble in Gaza,” Isaac said in his address during the service in the West Bank.
On December 13 the prime ministers of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand made a joint statement wanting to see a ‘pause’ resumed in Gaza and supporting urgent international efforts toward a sustainable ceasefire.