The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced that he had visited Gaza on Monday December 25 and promised a “intensification” fighting in the Palestinian territory against Hamas. “We are not stopping, we are continuing to fight, we are intensifying the fighting in the days to come and it will be a long war that is not going to end any time soon.”, he declared in front of the elected officials of his party, the Likud, according to a press release from the latter. Follow our live stream.
The Pope warns about the situation of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. “I call for an end to military operations, with their appalling result of innocent civilian casualties, and for the desperate humanitarian situation to be remedied by allowing humanitarian aid to arrive“said Pope Francis in his speech Urbi and orbi (“in the city [de Rome] and to the world”), Monday. “The eyes and hearts of Christians around the world are turned towards Bethlehem, where pain and silence reign today”he underlined, in reference to the city of birth of Jesus Christ according to Christian tradition, and which is today in the occupied West Bank.
• A toll that continues to rise in the Gaza Strip. A bombing killed 12 people near the small town of al-Zawaida, in the center of the Palestinian enclave, on Christmas morning on Monday, according to a report from the Hamas Health Ministry. During the night, a bombing in Khan Younes (south) caused at least 18 victims, he added. According to the same source, Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip have left 20,674 dead and more than 54,536 injured since the start of the war on October 7.
More than 15 Israeli soldiers killed in three days. On the Israeli side, more than fifteen soldiers have died in the last three days. On Monday morning, the army announced the death of two more soldiers, bringing to 156 its casualties since its troops operated on the ground in Gaza. “We are paying a very heavy price for the war, but we have no choice but to continue fighting”Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted on Sunday. “We are facing monsters”he insisted in his Christmas message addressed to Christians around the world.