Israel marks 2025 with massacres of Palestinians in Gaza

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.

In another video, a rescue worker held another child killed in the overnight strikes on a home in Jabalia.

“The year 2025, we welcome martyrs and the wounded… This year, 2025, the world celebrates. However, the Palestinian people are transferring martyrs and the wounded to [hospitals],” the rescue worker said.

Most dangerous place for children

Amid harsh winter cold, forced starvation and constant Israeli bombardment, Gaza has become the most dangerous place in the world for children, according to the UN.

Unicef spokesperson James Elder said at a press briefing in late December that there are no safe zones within the enclave, with hospitals, homes and shelters all being shelled. 

“The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. And day after day, that brutal reality is reinforced,” Elder said.

“An immediate and long-lasting humanitarian ceasefire is the only way to end the killing and injuring of children, and child deaths from disease, and enable the urgent delivery of desperately needed lifesaving aid.”

Besides Israeli bombardment, the new year in Gaza has brought heavy rainstorms and freezing weather.

The Palestinian Civil Defence reported that over 1,500 tents sheltering displaced people were flooded.

“Rescue teams monitored hundreds of tents that were flooded by rainwater at a level exceeding 30cm, and many displaced people suffered from shivering due to the cold and their belongings and bedding were damaged,” the civil defence said in its latest updates.

The majority of the 1.9 million displaced in Gaza living in shelters face “life-threatening conditions due to extreme cold and heavy rain”, according to the Palestinian Government Communication Center. 

“To date, hypothermia has tragically claimed the lives of six newborns and a physician,” the media office said in its latest situation report. 

The effects of the harsh weather conditions on Palestinians in Gaza have been exacerbated by the lack of humanitarian aid, forced displacement and worsening food insecurity.

Since the war began more than a year ago, Israel has imposed a siege on Gaza, restricting the entry of essential supplies such as food, water, electricity, medicine and tents.

Figures from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) show that the entire population of Gaza, around 2.2 million people, is undergoing extreme levels of acute food insecurity.