The Gaza Strip is facing some of the heaviest fighting so far in the current war, with Israel expanding its offensive just days after the UN Security Council issued a resolution calling for more aid and urgent steps for a permanent ceasefire.
More than 100 people were killed in Israeli air strikes late Sunday in the besieged Palestinian territories, including at least 70 people in a bombing that targeted a residential complex in the Maghazi refugee camp near Deir al-Balah, Gaza health officials said.
Deir al-Balah was also bombed overnight despite the Israeli army having previously designated it as an “evacuation zone” for Palestinians fleeing the fighting.
The Palestinian Red Crescent published footage from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, showing stunned children, stained with blood and covered in rubble dust. There were also dozens of white body bags.
At the site of the attack on Al-Maghazi, people screamed and chanted in the dark as they tried to search for survivors from the collapsed buildings.
“We have all been targeted,” Ahmed Turkmani, who lost several family members, including his daughter and grandson, told the Associated Press. “There is no safe place in Gaza anyway.”
The Israeli army said it was reviewing the Al-Maghazi incident.
The latest casualties came after an earlier announcement on Sunday from the Gaza Ministry of Health that Israeli air strikes killed 166 Palestinians within 24 hours, one of the bloodiest days in the 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, in which the Palestinian militant group killed 1,140 people and took 240 hostage.
Christmas celebrations were canceled this year across Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories in solidarity with the people of Gaza.
Instead of the traditional parade and joyful midnight mass in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, where Jesus is believed to have been born, Palestinian Christians held a quiet mass with hymns and prayers for peace.
“This day is supposed to 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 Pastor Louis Selman. “I blame the decision makers who are watching.” “It happens to the children of Gaza and they do nothing.”
For Israel, the war has also imposed what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday described as a “very heavy cost” — 15 Israeli soldiers have been killed in intense ground skirmishes with Hamas since Friday, bringing total combat losses to 156 soldiers.
Hamas cells use IEDs, ambushes, and their extensive tunnel network to inflict significant casualties on the IDF in house-to-house fighting, aided by knowledge of densely populated urban areas.
Despite a long-awaited UN Security Council resolution on Friday calling for urgent action from all parties to work towards a ceasefire, fighting on the ground has intensified since the collapse of a seven-day truce at the beginning of December.
Israel expanded its operations to the southern half of the area, which covers an area of 365 square kilometers This raises concerns for the Strip's 2.3 million residents, almost all of whom have already taken refuge south of the Gaza River after the Israeli military told them it would be safer there.
The United Nations has warned that a quarter of the population is suffering from famine and that the increase in aid since December 17 represents only a fraction of what people need to survive the cold and rainy winter conditions.
The World Food Program said the aid that did arrive was difficult to distribute due to fighting, lack of fuel and usable roads. In some cases, desperate people looted arriving aid vehicles.
Over the weekend, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy said his forces had largely achieved operational control in northern Gaza and would expand the offensive to the south, but residents still present in Gaza City and the Jabalia camp in the north said the fighting had worsened.
On Monday, details emerged of a ceasefire proposal presented by Egypt, the main mediator between Israel and Hamas.
The Qatari-brokered talks, which led to a seven-day ceasefire at the end of November and the release of 100 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli prisons, appear to have stalled.
The Israeli security cabinet is expected to discuss the Egyptian plan on Monday evening.
Islamic Jihad, a small Palestinian armed group allied with Hamas, said a delegation led by its exiled leader, Ziad al-Nakhalah, arrived in Cairo on Sunday. His arrival came after talks attended by Hamas leader outside Gaza Ismail Haniyeh in recent days, a positive sign that indirect discussions are underway.
The three-stage plan calls for an initial cessation of hostilities for at least a week, and the release of all remaining Israeli civilian hostages held in Gaza; Then a week in which female soldiers are released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. Finally, a month-long negotiation period for the release of male soldiers in exchange for Israeli withdrawal.
On Monday night, it became clear that the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements rejected the Egyptian proposal.
Separately, three security sources said that an Israeli air strike outside the Syrian capital, Damascus, killed a senior advisor to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
The sources told Reuters that the advisor known as Mr. Razi Mousavi was responsible for coordinating the military alliance between Syria and Iran, which supports Hamas in Gaza.
The Revolutionary Guard said, in a statement read by Iranian state television, that Israel “will pay the price for this crime.”
Washington, Israel's most important ally, urged Israeli officials to shift from large-scale air and ground operations in the Gaza Strip to a new phase in the war that focuses on precisely targeting Hamas leaders.
But despite mounting international condemnation over the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, including mounting criticism from the United States, Netanyahu said Israel would continue to press forward until “total victory” over Hamas was achieved.
“We would not have succeeded so far in releasing more than 100 hostages without military pressure,” Netanyahu said during a speech in the Knesset in Jerusalem on Monday. He added: “We will not succeed in releasing all the hostages without military pressure.”
The families of more than 100 Israeli hostages still held in Gaza watched Netanyahu's speech from the parliamentary hall, many of them carrying signs calling on Israel to reach an agreement and chanting “Now!”
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