An Israeli air strike that hit central Gaza's Maghazi refugee camp has killed 70 people, Palestinian health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said on Sunday, and he said the death toll was likely to climb.
"What is happening at the Maghazi camp is a massacre that is being committed on a crowded residential square," al-Qidra said.
The Israeli military said it was reviewing the incident.
"Despite the challenges posed by Hamas terrorists operating within civilian areas in Gaza, the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) is committed to international law including taking feasible steps to minimize harm to civilians," an Israeli army spokesperson said in a statement.
The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which runs Gaza, issued a statement calling the air strike "a horrific massacre" and said it was "a new war crime."
“We were all targeted,” said Ahmad Turokmani, who lost several family members including his daughter and grandson. “There is no safe place in Gaza anyway,” he told the Associated Press.
The Palestinian Red Crescent published footage of the wounded from the latest strike being transported to hospitals. It said Israeli warplanes were bombing main roads in central Gaza, hindering the passage of ambulances and emergency vehicles.
Medics said a separate Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza killed eight Palestinians.
Clergy cancelled celebrations in Bethlehem, the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank city where tradition has it that Jesus was born in a stable 2,000 years ago.
“Tonight, our hearts are in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace is once more rejected by the futile logic of war, by the clash of arms that even today prevents him from finding room in the world,” Pope Francis said, presiding at Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
Palestinian Christians earlier held a Christmas vigil in Bethlehem with candle-lit hymns and prayers for peace in Gaza instead of the usual celebrations.
There was no large tree, the usual centrepiece of Bethlehem’s Christmas celebrations. Nativity figurines in churches were placed amid rubble and barbed wire in solidarity with the people of Gaza.
In Jenin, there are sounds of explosions and heavy exchanges of fire between Palestinian resistance fighters and the Israeli occupation forces.
This is just an intensification of the raids that have been ongoing for nearly two years across the occupied West Bank, but they have intensified since October 7. There have been several thousand arrests and at least 303 Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank by either the Israeli military or armed Israeli settlers.
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