Strikes have hit the northern and central Gaza Strip as the war between Israel and Hamas approaches its 15th month with no peace solution in sight.
Israeli strikes killed at least 12 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on the first night of 2025, as the war between Israel and Hamas reaches its 15th month and little tangible progress has been made toward a ceasefire agreement.
One of the strikes hit a house in the neighborhood of Jabaliain the north of the Gaza Strip, the most isolated and destroyed part of the territory, where Israel has launched incessant strikes since the beginning of October.
Gaza’s health ministry said seven people were killed, including a woman and four children.
Another strike hit during the night the Bureij refugee campin the center of the Gaza Strip, causing two deaths according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) ordered people to evacuate the area overnight, saying they would launch an attack in response to rocket fire by Palestinian militants.
A third strike early Wednesday in the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis killed three people, according to the nearby Nasser Hospital and the European Hospital, which received the bodies.
The IDF claimed on X that the strike in Khan Younis killed the commander Abd al-Hadi Sabah – “one of the leaders of the infiltration into Kibbutz Nir Oz during the deadly massacre of October 7.”
They added that Sabah had also led and advanced numerous terrorist attacks against IDF troops throughout the current war.
The war between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza has begun October 7, 2023 after Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and removing approximately 250 hostages.
Around a hundred hostages are still being held in Gaza. According to the Jewish state, a third of them died.
Israel’s air and ground offensive in retaliation for the attack killed more than 45,000 Palestiniansaccording to the Gaza Ministry of Health, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants.
The Israeli military says its strikes only target militants and accuses Hamas of killing civilians because its fighters operate in dense residential areas. The army claims to have killed 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war has caused devastating damage to Gaza and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million.
U.S. and Arab mediators spent nearly a year trying to negotiate a ceasefire and the release of the hostages, but efforts were repeatedly blocked by conflicting demands from both sides.
Hamas demanded a lasting truce, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to continue fighting until “total victory.”
Video editor • Lucy Davalou
