Israel marks 2025 with massacres of Palestinians in Gaza
A Palestinian man mourns the death of a relative in Gaza City on 1 January 2025
Mera Aladam reports in Middle East Eye on 1 January 2025:
Israel has killed over a dozen Palestinians in overnight strikes on central Gaza’s Bureij camp and northern Jabalia just as New Year’s Day began. Palestinians in the enclave welcomed 2025 amid grief and destruction, as freezing temperatures and heavy rains compounded the ever-present threat of Israeli attacks.
According to Al Jazeera, the death toll from Israeli attacks on Jabalia and Bureij rose to 17, with the majority of those killed in Jabalia being children, as reported by the Wafa news agency.
The Israeli army targeted densely populated residential blocks in Jabalia and Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, where Palestinians in the area have been given expulsion orders in what rights groups describe as an ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing.
Meanwhile, in southern Gaza, at least three Palestinians were killed in a drone strike in al-Manara neighbourhood, the Palestinian Civil Defence said.
Strikes on a family’s home in Shujaiya, east of Gaza City, killed six, including three children and two women, according to the latest figures from civil defence teams.
The Palestinian health ministry reported two massacres in the Gaza Strip over the past 48 hours, with 12 killed and 41 injured brought to hospitals. Israel’s war on Gaza has so far resulted in the killing of at least 45,553 and the wounding of 108,379.
Local media featured one victim of the fresh attacks, a child killed in Jabalia. Footage shared showed the boy with his leg detached as family members mourned his loss and described how he spent his final hours hungry and cold. “He slept while he was freezing,” said one family member in a video shared online.