At least 68 killed in strike on Gaza refugee camp as Israel announces pause
Israel is investigating after nearly 70 people were killed in an air strike on a refugee camp in Gaza, the Hamas-run health ministry said, after a campaign of heavy bombing overnight that continued into Christmas morning.
The death toll of 68 people from the Israeli air strike on al-Maghazi refugee camp east of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza was likely to rise, according to Ashraf Al-Qidra, a spokesman for the ministry.
The dead included 12 women and seven children including a baby, early hospital figures suggested.
“We were all targeted,” Ahmad Turkomani, who lost several family members including his daughter and grandson, told the Associated Press. “There is no safe place in Gaza anyway.”
The Israeli military said it was reviewing the reports of the strike and was committed to minimising harm to civilians. Israel has accused Hamas of infiltrating densely populated civilian areas and using civilians as human shields.
Heavy bombardment was reported overnight, starting hours before midnight and continuing into Christmas Day, killing at least 78 people, according to Palestinian officials. The strikes targeted al-Bureij, as well as al-Nusseirat and al-Maghazi in central Gaza, Palestinian media reported.
Local residents of refugee camps in central Gaza said it had been one of their worst nights since the war began, with planes and tanks carrying out air strikes on houses and roads.
In the southern city of Khan Younis, several Palestinians were also killed in strikes, medics told Reuters.
The Palestinian Red Crescent published footage which it said showed wounded residents being transported to hospitals. It accused Israeli warplanes of bombing roads, preventing ambulances and emergency vehicles getting through.
Meanwhile the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) announced today that it would permit a six-hour pause in fighting in specific areas of central Gaza.
The IDF will enable “tactical pauses for humanitarian purposes to allow civilians in the Gaza Strip to replenish stocks such as food and water”, according to the Co-ordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), an IDF unit.
The pauses are taking place in the neighbourhoods of Sheikh Muhammad al-Yamani (West) and Deir al-Balah between 10am and 4pm local time.
It comes after the UN Security Council adopted a watered-down resolution on Friday which calls for faster aid deliveries into Gaza, but stopped short of calls for a ceasefire, which Israel says would benefit only Hamas.
The number of Israeli soldiers killed in combat in Gaza over the weekend has risen to 15, bringing the total to 154.
Over in the occupied West Bank, celebrations were muted in Bethlehem last night and today after many events were called off.
In the ancient city, where according to Christian tradition Jesus Christ was born 2,000 years ago, Palestinian Christians held a candle-lit vigil with hymns and prayers for peace in Gaza instead.
There was no large tree, the usual centrepiece of Bethlehem Christmas traditions, and Nativity figures were set amid rubble and barbed wire.
In Rome the Pope told Christmas Eve Mass in St Peter’s Basilica: “Tonight, our hearts are in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace is once more rejected by the futile logic of war, by the clash of arms that even today prevents him from finding room in the world.”
The war has devastated much of Gaza, killing roughly 20,400 Palestinians since it was launched following Hamas’ raid on southern Israel on 7 October, during which it killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostage.
