Gaza [Palestine], January 2: Over the past week, Hamas members have repeatedly fired rockets into Israel, especially from the northern Gaza Strip, where Israeli soldiers are conducting a major offensive, according to AFP.
The rockets caused little damage and were launched in much smaller numbers than at the beginning of the conflict, but they were a political blow to the Israeli government after nearly 15 months of fighting.
"Unprecedented Fierce Attack"
"I want to send a clear message from here to the leaders of the terrorists in Gaza: If Hamas does not soon release the Israeli hostages from Gaza... and continues to fire on Israeli communities, they will face an onslaught like they have not seen in Gaza for a long time," said Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz.
Mr Katz issued the warning after a visit to the Israeli town of Netivot, which was recently hit by rockets from Gaza. There was no immediate word on Hamas's response.
Hamas members are still holding 96 hostages taken in an attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and successive rounds of talks to release the hostages and reach a ceasefire have failed.
Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes continued across Gaza on January 1. " The world welcomed the new year with celebrations and festivities, while we witnessed the beginning of 2025 with the first Israeli massacre in the town of Jabalia just after midnight," Gaza civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.
Mr Bassal confirmed that "15 people were killed and more than 20 injured" in the attack on a house where evacuees were living.
The Israeli military told AFP it had "eliminated" a number of Hamas members operating "in a terrorist structure" in Jabalia.
Since October 6, 2024, the Israeli military has been conducting a major ground and air offensive in northern Gaza, specifically targeting Jabalia and the adjacent refugee camp. The Israeli military argues that the operation is aimed at preventing Hamas members from regrouping in the area.
UN human rights experts said on December 30, 2024 that Israel's "siege" appeared to be part of an effort to "permanently relocate local residents, creating the premise for the annexation of Gaza."
Nearly all of Gaza's 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once since the Hamas-Israel conflict erupted in October 2023, according to AFP.
"All around me is rubble"
Over the course of several weeks, Israel's assault on Jabalia has expanded across the northern Gaza Strip. On December 27, 2024, the Israeli military stormed the Kamal Adwan hospital, forcing the last of its staff and patients to leave.
The Israeli army said it had killed more than 20 people suspected of belonging to Hamas and arrested more than 240 people, including the hospital director, Hossam Abu Safiyeh.
"All around me there was just rubble and devastation. People didn't know what to do, didn't know where to go. And they didn't know how to survive," UN aid official Jonathan Whittall said in a video released after he visited an Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza.
The Israeli military has repeatedly accused Hamas of using hospitals as command centers, an allegation Hamas denies.
A report released by the United Nations Human Rights Office on December 31 asserted that there was "insufficient information" to substantiate Israel's "vague" allegations that hospitals in Gaza were being used for military purposes.
Two more Israeli air strikes on Gaza on January 1 killed 10 more people, rescue workers said. The bombs added to the suffering of homeless Gazans struggling to keep warm in freezing temperatures.
"For three days, we did not sleep because we were afraid our children would get sick because of the winter, and we were also afraid that the rockets would fall on us," said Samah Darabieh.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 45,553 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Gaza Health Authority considered reliable by the United Nations.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
