The Israeli air strikes continue on Gaza Stripwhere the 80th day of war, with civilians on the verge of starvation and Christmas mourning for the Palestinians of Bethlehemin occupied West Bankmarred by strife.

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, around 50 consecutive bombardments were launched.

The weekend was extremely bloody in the small, overpopulated enclave ruled since 2007 by Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist movement designated a “terrorist” organization by Israel, the US and the EU.

At least 70 people were killed in a shelling in al-Maghazi refugee camp, according to Hamas’ health ministry. AFP notes that it was unable to independently confirm this account.

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 since it began ground operations in the Gaza Strip on October 27. A section of the Israeli press considers this number to be underestimated.

“We are paying a very heavy price in the war, but we have no choice but to keep fighting,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday.

“We are facing monsters,” he insisted in his Christmas message. “This is a battle not only of Israel against these barbarians, but also a battle of civilization against barbarism.”

The spirit of Christmas is gone

“In the midst of war, no one feels the festive spirit,” lamented Fadi Saheh, a Palestinian Christian who held a vigil at an artificial kidney unit at Khan Younis Hospital, where the army said last week it would step up operations.

“We pray to God to stop this war quickly, to stop these massacres,” added the displaced kidney patient, who was separated from the rest of his family: the others stayed in Gaza City.

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 yesterday by the Hamas Health Ministry.

It forced 1.9 million residents of the Palestinian enclave—in other words, 85% of the population—to flee their homes.

Israel’s civilian-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 an AFP tally based on official Israeli announcements.

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

“We have to stop this war and turn the page,” said the Latino patriarch of the Jerusalem patriarchate, Pierbatista Pizzaballa, who went to celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem, in the West Bank, wearing the black and white Palestinian headscarf, the kufiya, around his neck.

In the city where, according to the Christian tradition, Jesus was born, the Christmas celebrations were practically canceled by decision of the municipal authorities and an atmosphere of sadness prevails.

In front of the Basilica of the Nativity, no manger was erected this year: Mary and Joseph are represented by gray statues, amid debris, behind barbed wire fences.

“It’s very difficult to celebrate something when our people are dying,” summed up Nicole Nazar, an eighteen-year-old student.

“Failed Logic”

“Our hearts tonight are in Bethlehem,” Pope Francis said during a Christmas Eve service in Rome yesterday, decrying the “failed logic of war.”

In Rafah, on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip, Isra al-Auf erupted, following an aerial bombardment of the neighborhood where it had taken refuge.

“Enough of the troubles! Stop making these children suffer, stop forcing a painful future on them,” the 27-year-old said. “I’m telling you, Netanyahu, every child (…) will grow up wanting to avenge his father, his mother, his uncle (…) An entire army will grow up with the burning desire to avenge Israel again, stop! »

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, the UN warns.

“The decimation of Gaza’s health system is a tragedy,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said yesterday via X (formerly Twitter).

While despite a decision taken by the UN Security Council on Friday calling for the “immediate” distribution of humanitarian aid “on a large scale” to the population of the enclave, which is largely threatened with starvation, there has been no record of any significant increase.

The Jordanian army announced last night that the Hashemite kingdom’s Air Force has 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 in Israeli jails.

A week-long truce in late November allowed the release of 105 hostages and, in exchange, 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

According to an AFP source in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the leader of this armed movement, an ally of Hamas, arrived in Cairo at the head of a delegation.

Torture?

Yesterday the Israeli army reported that it had found a “weapons depot next to schools, an Islamic mosque and a medical center”, where, according to it, “explosive belts adapted for children, dozens of rounds for cluster munitions, hundreds of grenades and reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering material” were located. .

As part of his operations, Chahal announced that he had arrested “persons suspected of being involved in terrorist activities.”

“Those who are proven not to be involved in terrorist activities are released,” he added.

But Palestinians released after being arrested in the Gaza Strip told AFP they had been tortured, which the Israeli military denied.

“They kept us handcuffed for two days. We had nothing to drink or eat, they didn’t let us go to the toilets, they just beat us, beat us (…), Najef Ali, 22, said.

Hamas yesterday called on the International Committee of the Red Cross to investigate the arrests.