Israeli strikes killed at least 12 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on New Year’s Day, mostly women and children, officials said, as the nearly 15-month war ground on into the new year.
One strike hit a home in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza, the most isolated and heavily destroyed part of the territory, where Israel has waged a major operation since early October. Gaza’s health ministry said seven people had been killed, including a woman and four children, and at least a dozen had been wounded.
Another strike overnight in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza killed a woman and a child, according to the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, which received the bodies.
“Are you celebrating? Enjoy as we die. For a year and a half, we have been dying,” said a man carrying the body of a child amid the flashing lights of emergency vehicles.
Israel’s military said militants had fired rockets from the Bureij area overnight and that it had responded with a strike targeting a militant.
A third strike in the southern city of Khan Younis killed three people, according to the Nasser and European hospitals, which received the bodies.
The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and abducting about 250. About 100 hostages are still held in Gaza, although at least a third are believed to be dead.
Israel’s air and ground offensive has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The war has caused widespread destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people, many of them more than once.
Hundreds of thousands of people live in tents on the coast as winter brings frequent rainstorms and temperatures drop below 10C (50F) at night. At least six infants and another person have died of hypothermia, according to the health ministry.
Many displaced Palestinians in central Gaza rely on charity kitchens as their sole source of food as a result of aid restrictions and skyrocketing prices. AP footage showed a long queue of children waiting for rice, the only item served at the kitchen in Deir al-Balah on Wednesday.
“Some of those kitchens close because they don’t receive aid, and others distribute small amounts of food and it’s not enough,” said Umm Adham Shaheen, who is displaced from Gaza City.
