by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Bassam Masoud and Dan Williams
CAIRO/GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli airstrikes killed at least 78 people in Gaza, according to Palestinian health authorities, in one of the deadliest nights in the enclave since the start of the Israel’s offensive against Hamas.
The strikes which began a few hours before midnight continued until early Monday. Residents and Palestinian media said Israel had stepped up aerial and ground bombardments against Bureij in central Gaza.
At least 70 people were killed in an airstrike on the Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, said Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al Qidra, adding that the victims were largely women and children.
The Israeli military said it would review the reports regarding Maghazi and was committed to minimizing harm to civilians.
Pope Francis lamented that Jesus’ message of peace was drowned out in the “futile logic of war” in the very land where he was born.
According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, which published images of injured residents being transported to hospitals, Israeli warplanes were bombing main roads, blocking the passage of ambulances and emergency vehicles.
Doctors say an Israeli airstrike in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip killed eight Palestinians.
Clergy canceled celebrations in Bethlehem, the Israeli-occupied West Bank city where Christian tradition holds that Jesus was born in a stable 2,000 years ago.
“Tonight, our hearts are in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace is once again rejected by the futile logic of war, by the clash of arms which, even today, prevents him from finding his place in the world,” said the pope, who presided over Christmas Eve mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
Palestinian Christians held a candlelight Christmas vigil in Bethlehem, with hymns and prayers for peace in Gaza, instead of the usual celebrations.
In churches, Nativity figures were placed amid rubble and barbed wire as a sign of solidarity with the people of Gaza.
“HARD MORNING”
Hamas and Islamic Jihad, both of which have vowed the destruction of Israel, are believed to be holding more than 100 hostages of the 240 they captured during their Oct. 7 raid on Israeli towns, in which they killed 1,200 people.
Since then, Israel has besieged the narrow Gaza Strip, killing more than 20,400 people, according to the enclave’s authorities, and thousands of other bodies are believed to be found under the rubble.
Since the end of a week-long truce earlier this month, fighting has only intensified on the ground, with the war stretching from the northern Gaza Strip to the entire length of the enclave. densely populated.
The Israeli army said on Sunday that two of its soldiers had died, bringing to 158 the number of soldiers killed since the start of ground operations on October 20.
“This is a difficult morning, after a very difficult day of fighting in Gaza,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his office on Sunday. “The war is costing us dearly. However, we have no choice but to continue fighting.”
His troops will fight in the Gaza Strip until “total victory” over Hamas, he said in a video message.
Israel is under pressure from its closest ally, the United States, to move to a lower-intensity offensive phase and reduce civilian casualties.
On Saturday, Israel’s army chief of staff said his forces had largely taken operational control of the northern Gaza Strip and would expand their operations to the south, but residents say the fighting further intensified in the northern districts.
Diplomatic efforts, mediated by Egypt and Qatar, towards a new truce to free the last hostages held in Gaza, have made little public progress, although Washington described last week’s talks as “very serious”
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group sent a delegation on Saturday to take part in the Cairo discussions, a sign that the diplomatic channel is not closed.
The arrival in Cairo of a delegation led by the exiled leader of Islamic Jihad, Ziad al Nakhlala, comes days after the head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, visited the Egyptian capital to take part to diplomatic talks.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo, Bassam Masoud in Gaza, Dan Williams in Jerusalem, with contributions from Philip Pullella in Rome, Nafisa Eltahir in Cairo and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington, written by Humeyra Pamuk and William Mallard; French version Kate Entringer )
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