This year’s Christmas dawned and so did the 80th day of the war in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli airstrikes continue, civilians in the Palestinian enclave are on the brink of starvation, and Christmas for Palestinians in Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, is mournful.

There was no respite in the Gaza Strip on Christmas Eve. On the night of Sunday to Monday, the Health Ministry of Hamas announced that at least 11 people were killed in a bombardment in Khan Younis (south), while in the central part of the enclave about 50 consecutive bombardments were launched. The weekend was extremely bloody, with at least 70 dead from a bombardment of a refugee camp in central Gaza.

For its part, the Israeli Army announced the death of about fifteen of its soldiers in three days, raising its official casualty count to 154, after it began ground operations in the Gaza Strip on October 27. Part of the Israeli press considers this figure to be an underestimate.

The war has claimed the lives of 20,424 people in the Gaza Strip, most of them women and children, according to the latest death toll released Sunday by Hamas’ Health Ministry. The conflict forced 1.9 million residents of the Palestinian enclave, or 85% of the population, to flee their homes.

Israel’s civil-military leadership has vowed to eliminate Hamas after its military arm’s unprecedented attack on southern sectors of Israeli territory on October 7 killed 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to AFP based on official Israeli statements. 

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Palestinian militants also took about 250 people hostage, more than 120 of whom remain captive in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli authorities.

In the city, where according to the Christian tradition Jesus was born, the Christmas celebrations were practically canceled by the decision of the municipal authorities and an atmosphere of sadness prevails. No manger was erected in front of the Basilica of the Nativity this year. Mary and Joseph are represented as gray statues among the rubble, behind barbed wire fences.

The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip remains dire: most hospitals have been shut down and, within the next six weeks, the enclave’s entire population is at risk of acute food insecurity such as famine, the UN warns.

Despite a decision taken by the UN Security Council on Friday, calling for the immediate distribution of large-scale humanitarian aid to the population of Gaza, which is largely threatened with starvation, no significant increase has so far been recorded.

The Jordanian Army announced on Sunday evening that the Hashemite Kingdom’s Air Force proceeded to drop aid to the approximately 800 people who have taken refuge in the Church of Saint Porphyry in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

For their part, the mediators, Egypt and Qatar, are still trying to reach a compromise that would allow more aid to enter, the release of hostages, and the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.

Source: Euronews

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