Deir Al-Balah: Israeli strikes killed at least 12 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children, officials said Wednesday, as the nearly 15-month war ground on into the new year.
One strike hit a home in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza, the most isolated and heavily destroyed part of the territory, where Israel has waged a major operation since early October. Gaza’s Health Ministry said seven people were killed, including a woman and four children, and at least a dozen other people were wounded.
Another strike overnight in the built-up Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza killed a woman and a child, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies.
“Are you celebrating? Enjoy as we die. For a year and a half, we have been dying,” said a man carrying the body of a child in the flashing lights of emergency vehicles.
Israel’s military said Hamas group fired rockets at Israel from the Bureij area overnight and that its forces responded with a strike targeting a group. The military also issued evacuation orders for the area.
A third strike in the southern city of Khan Younis killed three people, according to Nasser Hospital and the European Hospital, which received the bodies.
The war began when Hamas-led group attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and abducting around 250. About 100 hostages are still held in Gaza, at least a third believed to be dead.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has killed over 45,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It says women and children make up more than half the dead but does not say how many of those killed were members of the group.
The Israeli military says it only targets Hamas members and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because its fighters operate in dense residential areas. The army says it has killed 17,000 Hamas members, without providing evidence.
The war has caused widespread destruction and displaced some 90 per cent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, many of them multiple times.
Hundreds of thousands live in tents on the coast as winter brings frequent rainstorms and temperatures drop below 10 degrees Celsius (50 F) at night. At least six infants and another person have died of hypothermia, according to the Health Ministry.
Many displaced Palestinians in central Gaza rely on charity kitchens as their sole food provider amid restrictions on aid and skyrocketing prices. AP footage showed a long line of children waiting for rice, the only item served at the kitchen in Deir al-Balah on Wednesday.
“Some of those kitchens close because they don’t receive aid, and others distribute little amounts of food and its not enough,” said Umm Adham Shaheen, displaced from Gaza City.
American and Arab mediators have spent nearly a year trying to broker a ceasefire and hostage release, but those efforts have repeatedly stalled. Hamas has demanded a lasting truce, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu has vowed to keep fighting until “total victory.”
