Israel intensified its assault on the Gaza Strip, killing up to 250 people over the last 24 hours, according to Palestinian authorities cited by Al Jazeera. The attacks included an air strike on the Maghazi refugee camp east of Deir al-Balah, about midway between Gaza City and Khan Younis, which killed at least 100 people. Many more are still unaccounted for in the rubble.
Associated Press journalists at a nearby hospital watched frantic Palestinians carry the dead, including a baby, and wounded following the strike on the Maghazi refugee camp. One bloodied young girl looked stunned while her body was checked for broken bones. The fatalities included at least 12 women and 7 children, according to early hospital figures. “We were all targeted,” said Ahmad Turkomani, who lost several family members including his daughter and grandson. “There is no safe place in Gaza anyway.”
The IDF is not having an easy time of it, though, as 17 Israeli troops were reported killed in the fighting over the weekend. The IDF death toll since the ground war began is now reported to be 156. “The war exacts a very heavy price from us, but we have no choice but to continue fighting,” Benjamin Netanyahu said. He also visited IDF troops in Gaza on Christmas Day, and returned to tell a meeting of his Likud party that troops he met on his visit to Gaza had urged Israel to keep fighting. “They all asked me only one thing: that we don’t stop and continue on until the end,” he said. “So we don’t stop, we keep fighting and we deepen the fighting in the coming days and it will be a long fight and it is not close to ending.”
