M.AMINUR RAHMAN
Pope Francis mourned the conflict in the Holy Land where the Palestinian Authority said at least 78 people were killed in Christmas Eve airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, Israel's deadliest in 11 weeks. The old fight with Hamas.
The Israeli attack, which began a few hours before 12 noon, continued until Christmas Monday. Nearby occupiers and Palestinian media reported that Israel had launched air and ground fire against Al-Burez in the focal Gaza Strip.
As many as 70 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes centered on Magazi, a focal point in Gaza, health representative Ashraf al-Qidra said, including many women and children.
The Israeli armed forces said they were investigating reports of a Magazi incident and were focusing on limiting civilian casualties. Hamas has denied Israeli allegations that it operates in densely populated areas or regularly uses people as human security.
The Palestinian Red Bow distributed film of the injured sent to emergency clinics. It said Israeli warplanes were blocking primary roads into the focal Gaza, preventing the movement of ambulances and crisis vehicles.
Eight Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza's Khan Yunis, doctors said.
Churches in the Israel-affiliated Palestinian West Bank city of Bethlehem have dropped the festival, where there is tradition that Jesus was brought to earth long ago in a stable state.
"This evening, once again, our hearts are in Bethlehem, where sovereign harmony has been dismissed by the useless logic of war, by the clash of arms that prevents him from finding room on the planet even today," expressed Pope Francis, directing. On Christmas Eve at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
Palestinian Christians earlier held a Christmas vigil in Bethlehem, which was accompanied by flame-lit psalms and appeals for harmony in Gaza, rather than the standard festival.
There was no giant tree, the ideal centerpiece of Bethlehem's Christmas festivities. Nativity dolls in chapels were placed in rubble and spiked metal to fasten them to Gazans.
A Ruined Christmas
Since the seven-day-long détente erupted earlier in the month, fighting has only escalated on the ground, with fighting spreading from the north of the Gaza Strip to the entire length of the enclave.
The Israeli military revealed that 10 of its fighters had been killed earlier in the day, after five were killed the day before, in its deadliest two days of casualties since early November.
"It's a troubled morning after a really challenging day of fighting in Gaza," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his bureau on Sunday. "The conflict is demanding an exceptionally heavy cost from us; but we have (however) to choose between limited options to continue fighting."
In a later video message, he said troops would fight deeper into Gaza until there was "total victory" against Hamas.
Israel is feeling pressure from its closest partner, the United States, to take its operations to a lower density level and reduce regular civilian crossings.
On Saturday, Israel's chief of tactical staff said its forces had generally completed effective control of northern Gaza and would expand operations further south.
Still, occupiers say the war in the north has only escalated.
Islamic Jihad pioneers in Cairo on discreet missions
With Egypt and Qatar intervening, strategic efforts at another ceasefire to free additional prisoners held by the aggressors in Gaza have made minimal public progress, although Washington last week portrayed the talks as "intense".
Islamic Jihad, a more modest militant group allied with Hamas, said its exiled chief, Ziad al-Nakhlala, was in Cairo on Sunday. His appearance came late after talks with Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh.
The militant group has said at the moment it will not check any arrivals of prisoners if Israel ends its conflict in Gaza, while the Israelis say they will check a permanent delay in the war.
The designation would reaffirm the gathering place that all Palestinians held in Israel for any trade in prisoners should arrive, "after a cease-fire is completed," the authority said.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad, both committed to Israel's destruction, still hold more than 100 of the 240 held captive.
From that point forward, Israel blockaded the Gaza Strip and destroyed much, according to experts in Hamas-ruled Gaza, leaving more than 20,400 people dead and thousands more under the rubble.
So far most of the 2.3 million Gazans have been driven from their homes.
News:- CAIRO/GAZA/JERUSALEM, Dec 25 (Reuters)
No comments:
Post a Comment