The Israeli military started the New Year by massacring dozens of Palestinians in Gaza, killing at least 28 in attack across the Strip since dawn on Wednesday, medical sources told Al Jazeera.
In northern Gaza, Israeli strikes hit a home in Jabalia, killing at least 15. According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, most of the dead were children.
Seven Palestinians were also reported killed by an Israeli attack on a home east of Gaza City. In Khan Younis, southern Gaza, at least four Palestinians were killed by Israeli strikes, and in the central Bureij refugee camp, two were killed.
Amid the Israeli strikes, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened to increase attacks on Gaza in response to rocket fire from the Strip, which caused little damage in Israel.
“I want to send a clear message from here to the heads of the terrorists in Gaza: If Hamas does not soon allow the release of the Israeli hostages from Gaza… and continues firing at Israeli communities, it will face blows of an intensity not seen in Gaza for a long time,” Katz said.
Amid the relentless Israeli attacks, displaced Palestinian civilians living in flimsy tents are suffering from the cold weather and heavy rains. At least seven Palestinian babies have died due to exposure within about one week.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said in its casualty update on Wednesday that at least 12 Palestinians were killed and 41 were injured by Israeli attacks in the previous 48-hour period. The ministry releases its figures about mid-day and only accounts for dead and wounded Palestinians brought to hospitals and morgues.
“Several victims remain under the rubble and in the streets, and emergency and civil defense teams are unable to reach them,” the ministry wrote on Telegram.
Al Jazeera reported that during the month of December, Israel conducted around 1,400 airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, averaging about 45 a day. The heavy airstrikes killed at least 1,170 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry’s numbers.
The Health Ministry said on Wednesday that its recorded death toll since October 2023 has reached 45,553 martyrs, and the number of wounded has risen to 108,379.
In October, a group of American healthcare workers who volunteered in Gaza estimated in an open letter to President Biden that the US-backed Israeli onslaught has killed at least 118,908 Palestinians, a total that includes indirect deaths caused by the Israeli siege. Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, who led the letter, told Antiwar.com in a recent interview that the estimate was the bare minimum they came up with by looking at the available data.
