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Agence France-Presse

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Gaza Strip on Monday and vowed to step up the army’s assault in the Palestinian territory, his party said.
“I just came back from Gaza … we’re not stopping, we’re continuing to fight and we’re intensifying the fighting in the coming days,” he told members of his Likud party according to a statement.
“It’s going to be a long war that’s not close to ending.”
Meanwhile, families of hostages taken by Gaza militants heckled Netanyahu on Monday as he addressed parliament, vowing to bring the captives home but saying “more time” was needed.
“Now! Now!” the families chanted when Netanyahu said Israeli forces needed “more time” to increase military pressure on Gaza’s Hamas rulers.
Israel says 129 hostages are still held in the Palestinian territory.
Three Israeli hostages were killed mistakenly in Gaza by Israeli forces earlier this month.
Israeli air strikes kill dozens, Gaza officials say, in Christmas bloodshed
Israel’s offensive continued with strikes on Monday as it battered Gaza where health officials reported dozens killed throughout the besieged Hamas-run territory, as the war put a damper on Christmas festivities.
The Gaza health ministry said an Israeli strike late on Sunday killed at least 70 people in Al-Maghazi refugee camp, in the territory’s centre.
Camp resident Zeyad Awad said Israel’s army had sown “panic in the hearts of my children” and accused it of targeting civilians “indiscriminately, without mercy”.
The army said it was reviewing the incident and was “committed to international law”.

The ministry also reported an Israeli air strike “targeting a house” in the central Al-Zawaida area which killed at least 12 people including women and children.
And in northern Gaza, the ministry said 10 members of one family were killed in an Israeli strike on their house in Jabilia camp.
An overnight strike on Khan Yunis in the south killed 18 people, according to the health ministry.
AFP was unable to independently verify the tolls.
The World Health Organization said it led missions to barely functioning hospitals in northern Gaza, describing starving people stripping an aid truck of supplies.
Israel-Gaza war, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine cast shadow over Christmas
The head of the UN health agency, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said mission participants witnessed “rising desperation due to acute hunger”.
“Partners demand immediate scale-up of food and water to ensure population health and stability,” he added on social media.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen accused the United Nations of “hypocrisy” and called its response to the war a “disgrace”.
Cohen said he had ordered his ministry not to extend one UN employee’s entry visa and to refuse entry for another.
“We will stop working with those who cooperate with the Hamas terrorist organisation’s propaganda,” he said on social media.


Pope Francis deplored “the desperate humanitarian situation” of Palestinians in Gaza, calling for an immediate ceasefire and the freeing of hostages.
Christmas festivities in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem – revered as the birthplace of Jesus Christ – were effectively scrapped amid the conflict, with few worshippers or tourists on the usually packed streets.
Hamas launched a shock attack against Israel from Gaza on October 7, killing about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.
Hamas and other Palestinian militants also took around 250 hostages, of whom 105 have been released and several killed, including by friendly fire.




Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel has led a relentless air and ground offensive that has left vast areas of Gaza in ruins and killed at least 20,674 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
The ministry added that 54,536 people have been wounded since the start of the war, triggered by deadly Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7.
Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad rejected on Monday an Egyptian proposal that they relinquish power in the Gaza Strip in return for a permanent ceasefire, two Egyptian security sources told Reuters.
Additional reporting by Associated Press, Reuters


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Israel-Gaza war

Netanyahu visits Gaza, vows Israel will ‘intensify’ fighting; is heckled by hostage families, with no end in sight to war

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he visited Gaza on Monday and that Israel would intensify their fighting. Photo: EPA-EFE/Pool

The mother of a Palestinian man, who was killed during Israeli air strikes on the southern Gaza Strip, mourns over his wrapped body. Photo: EPA-EFE

Palestinians feel ‘no joy’ as Israel bombs Gaza on Christmas, ‘pray for war to be over soon’

Palestinian youth members of the scouting movement hold up banners condemning and calling for an end of the conflict in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian militant Hamas in the biblical city of Bethlehem. Photo: AFP

Scouts install banners in support of Gaza, outside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Photo: Reuters

Fighting rages in northern Gaza after UN stops short of ceasefire call

Palestinians look at the destruction of the Al-Gatshan family building after an Israeli strike in Nusseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, on December 18. Photo: AP

A picture taken from southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip on Thursday shows destruction in northern Gaza resulting from weeks of Israeli bombardment. Photo: AFP

Debris covers the ground at a damaged school following an Israeli raid, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, on December 15. Photo: Reuters

A Palestinian man mourns a relative killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip outside a morgue, in Khan Younis on Saturday. Photo: AP

Palestinians wait to collect food at a donation point in a refugee camp in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday. Photo: AFP

Israeli flags fly next to the rubble of destroyed buildings in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as seen from southern Israel on Saturday. Photo: Reuters

US engaging in high-level diplomacy to avoid vetoing UN resolution on critical aid

People visit the UN Headquarters as delegates of the Security Council delayed for one extra day the vote on a proposal to demand that Israel and Hamas allow aid access to the Gaza Strip. Photo: Reuters

A Palestinian woman carries the wrapped body of a her infant, killed in Israeli bombardment, after battles resumed between Israel and the Hamas movement. Photo: dpa

News

World

Middle East

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Gaza Strip on Monday and vowed to step up the army’s assault
Meanwhile, families of hostages taken by Gaza militants heckled Netanyahu as he addressed parliament when he said ‘more time’ was needed to bring captives home


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Gaza on Monday and vowed to expand the military operation, and says the war “isn’t close to finished”.


Netanyahu visits Gaza, vows Israel will ‘intensify’ fighting; is heckled by hostage families, with no end in sight to war

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Gaza Strip on Monday and vowed to step up the army’s assault Meanwhile, families of hostages taken by Gaza militants heckled Netanyahu as he addressed parliament when he said ‘more time’ was needed to bring captives home

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Gaza Strip on Monday and vowed to step up the army’s assault

Meanwhile, families of hostages taken by Gaza militants heckled Netanyahu as he addressed parliament when he said ‘more time’ was needed to bring captives home