The Christmas season did not stop the military offensive in Gaza, with an increase in the number of deaths and injuries and a trapped population, while the Israeli Army also recorded casualties in a very violent day.
At least 166 Palestinian civilians were killed in the enclave in the last 24 hours and 384 were injured by intense Israeli bombing – one of the deadliest days since the attacks began -, with a total toll of 20,424 dead and 54,036 injured since the 7th. October, reported the Ministry of Health of Gaza, controlled by the Islamist group Hamas.
Israel ordered the evacuation of eight towns in the central Gaza Strip and told residents to move to the city of Deir al Balah, where five massacres had occurred in the last 48 hours, according to the Efe news agency. .
“There is nowhere to go in Gaza,” lament many of those displaced by the Israeli offensive, and when at least 1.9 million of the 2.3 million inhabitants have already been forced to abandon their homes, most of whom were destroyed or damaged and after two and a half months of war.
“There is no safe zone in Gaza,” Sabri Abdelrahim told Efe in the Bureij refugee camp, and after Israel ordered it to be abandoned by the 150,000 people it houses.
After some resistance, the majority decided to leave due to the bombings, repeating the images of vehicles, trucks, donkey carts and streets full of displaced people.
There are also children, the elderly and women, along with mattresses, kitchen utensils and canned food, flown over by Israeli planes.
The Israeli Army also announced the death of 14 soldiers in the last 48 hours, one of the deadliest days for its forces since the start of the ground offensive in the enclave.
In total, 153 Israeli soldiers have died in combat since the start of the ground offensive, surpassing the 119 who died in the 2006 Lebanon war, according to Army figures.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already lamented the costs of the conflict.
“The war is taking a heavy toll on us but we have no alternative but to continue fighting” until “the destruction of Hamas, the only way to recover our hostages, even if it takes time,” he stated.
The Israeli Army reported that in the last 24 hours it had attacked more than 200 Hamas “terrorist targets” and killed numerous fighters in joint operations with the Shin Bet, the internal secret services.
The arrest last week of more than 200 “terrorists” from Hamas and Islamic Jihad was also announced, a total of about 800 since the start of the current conflict, many of them transferred to Israel, where they are being interrogated.
In a Christmas message, the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, called for an end to the “river of blood” and the “immense sacrifices” of the Palestinian people.
“The hardships and heroic resistance of our people in their land are the path to freedom and dignity,” said Abbas, who rules in small areas of the occupied West Bank.
This year, and contrary to traditional celebrations, Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Vatican’s envoy to the Holy Land, arrived in a solemn procession without music or festive events, and in mourning for the high number of Palestinian civilians killed in the conflict.
“It’s a sad Christmas,” lamented the patriarch.
Source: TSF
