While the world was celebrating the birth of Jesus and unwrapping gifts, in a freezing tent near Khan Yunis, southern Gazalittle Sila was dying of cold, wrapped in a white shroud and held close to her mother who, with the little milk from her breast, was trying to calm the newborn’s crying.. The saddest story of this Christmas comes from the Al Mawasi refugee camp, on the dunes overlooking the Mediterranean, a drama unfortunately by no means isolated in the Strip, where fewer and fewer children manage to survive. Sila had only been born three weeks ago and after yet another night under a tent, heated only by the bodies of her parents, «in the morning – her father told the AP Mahmoud al-Faseeh – she was unconscious, like a piece of wood”, her small face and her lips bruised.
His tragic story is not the only one in Gaza’s second winter under Israeli bombs. The head of pediatrics at the Nasser hospital said that in recent days «a three-day-old baby girl and another less than a month old died after the significant drop in temperatures”. Spending the night inside a tent, resting on the cold sand, while outside there were a few degrees above zero was fatal for little Sila on the night between the 24th and 25th. So, while the hopes of a ceasefire that also allows the release of the hostages still held captive in Gaza, Israel’s operations in the Strip do not stop. Palestinian TV Al-Quds reported that five of its journalists were killed in a raid on Nuseirat, in the center of the enclave. The five reporters, hit while traveling in a van, died “while carrying out their journalistic and humanitarian duty”, claimed Al-Quds TV. The IDF replied that they had carried out an attack against a “vehicle” with “on board” an Islamic Jihad terrorist cell.”
However, Israeli families are fighting to see their relatives return home. A group of family members of 20 hostages still held in Gaza have written to the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and to government ministers accusing them of “breaching their legal obligation to save” their loved ones by not signing an agreement to secure their release. And they have warned the government that they will appeal to the Supreme Court if action is not taken. Negotiations, however, are struggling. Hamas and Israel, after the hopes of recent days, accuse each other of having blocked the negotiations: the Palestinian Islamist movement has criticized the Jewish State for having placed “new conditions” on the table of the indirect talks underway in Doha for several days, under the auspices of Qatar, Egypt and the United States; while Israel blamed Hamas for the “new obstacles” to the negotiations.
In the meantime, as announced, the Israeli government has intensified its attacks in Yemen and today bombed, according to what was announced by the IDF, the “infrastructures used by the Houthi terrorist regime for its military activities” at Sanaa international airport ; the Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power plants and the infrastructure in the ports of Hodeida, Salif and Ras Kanatib on the coast. At least 4 dead, according to former Yemeni rebels. The director general of the WHO also risked his life, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesuswho was at Sanaa airport and was about to board. «One of the crew members of our plane was injured. At least two people were reported to have died. The control tower, the departure hall, a few meters from where we were, and the runway were damaged,” Tedros himself wrote on X, adding: “My colleagues from the UN and WHO and I are safe.” «We are determined to cut off this terrorist branch of the Iranian axis of evil. We will continue until the work is finished,” Netanyahu assured.