Monday, December 25, 2023
17:35 GMT – Hamas rejects temporary pauses, calls for end of Israeli war on Gaza
Hamas said on Monday that it rejects any temporary pauses and seeks a permanent halt of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
"Our people want a permanent end of this aggression, not temporary pauses,” Hamas said in a statement.
The resistance group said it will not enter any hostage swap negotiations with Israel unless "there is a total cessation of the aggression."
16:30 GMT – Gaza death toll nears 20,700
The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has surged to 20,674, the Health Ministry in the territory said on Monday.
Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra also said that 54,536 people had been injured in the months-long offensive.
Israel continues to bombard the Gaza Strip from the air and land in retaliation for an October 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
15:00 GMT – Israel detains 35 more Palestinians in occupied West Bank amid growing tension
Israeli forces detained 35 more Palestinians in occupied West Bank on Monday, taking the tally of detainees in the occupied territory to 4,730 since October 7, according to prisoners' affairs groups.
The arrests took place in the cities of Nablus, Tulkarem, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Hebron and East Jerusalem, the Commission for Detainees and Ex-Prisoners' Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.
The figure of detainees does not include those arrested by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.
05:00 GMT - Israeli airstrike kills dozens at refugee camp
An Israeli airstrike on Al Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza has killed at least 70 people, a spokesman for the health ministry in the enclave said Sunday.
Ashraf Al Qudra said what was happening at the Maghazi camp was a "massacre" that was committed on a crowded residential block.
He added that the death toll is likely to climb, give n the large number of families residing there.
04:19 GMT - 'Our hearts are in Bethlehem' : Pope Francis
Pope Francis appealed for peace while leading Christmas Eve mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican as the Israeli war on Gaza relentlessly raged on.
"Tonight, our hearts are in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace is once more rejected by the futile logic of war,” he told about 6,500 faithful, referring to Jesus Christ.
03:30 GMT - 'Christ is under the rubble' in Gaza: Bethlehem reverend
As Christmas Eve celebrations in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem were halted due to the Israeli aggression in Gaza, a reverend asked: "Where is God?"
"Christ is under the rubble. We are angry. We are broken. This should have been a time of joy. Instead, we are mourning. We are fearful," Munther Isaac started his address during the "Christ in the Rubble: A Liturgy of Lament" service at the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem.
"Gaza as we know it no longer exists. This is an annihilation. This is a genocide. The world is watching. Churches are watching," Isaac continued, saying the Western world does not see Palestinians as "equal."
For our live updates from Sunday, December 24, click here.
