Israelis and Palestinians end a dark year on Sunday, with no end in sight to the deadliest military offensive on Gaza, triggered by Hamas’ bloodiest attack on Israel.
There has been no respite from Israel’s air raids, artillery fire or ground fighting with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, to the despair of Palestinians surviving the onslaught.
“We were hoping that 2024 would arrive under better auspices and that we would be able to celebrate the new year at home with our families,” said Mahmoud Abou Shahma in a camp for displaced people in Rafah, on the Egyptian border.
“We hope that the war will end and that we will be able to return to our homes and live in peace”, said the 33-year-old from Khan Yunis, an epicentre of the conflict in the south of Gaza.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says the Israeli military campaign has killed at least 21,822 people, mostly women and children — by far the heaviest death toll of any Israeli operation.
On Sunday the ministry reported numerous deaths in overnight strikes on central Gaza’s Zawayda and the nearby Al-Mughazi refugee camp.
The fighting began with Hamas’s October 7 attacks, which left about 1,140 people dead in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also took about 250 people hostage, and Israel says 129 of them remain in captivity.
The Israeli army says 170 soldiers have been killed in combat inside Gaza.
An Israeli siege imposed after October 7, following years of crippling blockade, has led to dire shortages of food, safe water, fuel and medicine in Gaza, with aid convoys able to offer only sporadic relief.
The UN says more than 85 percent of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have fled their homes.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of the growing threat of infectious diseases and the UN says Gaza is “just weeks away” from famine.—AFP
