Leadnaija
Several people were killed in an Israeli strike in northern Gaza on Wednesday, a local emergency service said, as many displaced Gazans entered the new year shivering in tent camps or taking refuge in schools-turned-shelters.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the reported attack. Israeli forces have been fighting in northern Gaza for almost three months in a ground operation against what Israel says is a renewed Hamas insurgency in the area, displacing tens of thousands of people.
The Palestinian Civil Defense — which is overseen by the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry — said the strike took place in the city of Jabaliya and killed five people. The report could not be independently verified and Gaza health authorities do not differentiate between civilians and combatants when reporting death tolls. Repeated Israeli offensives have forced most Gazans to flee and turned the area into a devastated landscape of vacant, torn-up streets and ruined buildings.
More than a year into the war between Israel and Hamas, many Gazans are living in makeshift tents and finding enough food and clean water has become a daily ordeal. The past few days have seen chilly winter rainstorms beat down in the enclave; Gazan officials say some infants have died from the cold.
Montaser Bahja, an English teacher from Jabaliya, was lucky enough to find an empty apartment in Gaza City to shelter with his family. In a vain effort to keep out of the cold, he spread plastic wrap over its window frames, which had been shattered in the fighting.
During the rainstorm, the near-constant sound of Israeli airstrikes slowed to the occasional distant blast, said Mr. Bahja. But then on New Year’s Eve, as the downpour began to let up, the bombardment resumed across northern Gaza, he said.
“We hoped that by the new year, the war would end,” said Mr. Bahja. “Instead, there was bombing all night.”
At least 45,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the Hamas-led attack on Israel last year prompted the war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Hamas’s assault on Oct. 7, 2023, killed around 1,200 people in Israel and saw 250 taken hostage back to Gaza, mostly civilians, according to Israel.
Israel and Hamas remain deadlocked in cease-fire talks to end the war and free the hostages held in Gaza. Officials and mediators had voiced tentative optimism last month that the negotiations could move forward, but that has yet to be borne out.Tap Here for the Full Story
