Palestinian health officials say Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have killed 38 people and injured 137 others in the past 24 hours. Among the dead are five journalists with the Al-Quds Today channel who were killed in an Israeli strike on their broadcasting van near the Al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Video of their assassination shows a van clearly marked with the word “press” engulfed in flames. The slain journalists are Fadi Hassouna, Ibrahim al-Sheikh Ali, Mohammed al-Ladah, Faisal Abu al-Qumsan and Ayman al-Jadi, who had gone to the Al-Awda Hospital with his wife, who was in labor with their first child. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate reports Israeli attacks since October 2023 have killed more than 190 journalists and media workers across Gaza.

Meanwhile, Palestinian doctors say three babies have died of hypothermia in recent days as temperatures in Gaza’s tent encampments plummeted amid Israel’s stifling blockade of food, water and aid. Displaced Christians in Gaza marked a somber Christmas holiday amid the devastation of Israel’s assault. This is 67-year-old Najlaa Tarzy, whose family once again spent Christmas sheltering inside Gaza’s only Catholic church.

Najlaa Tarzy: “Each year on this date, we celebrate the birth of Jesus, spread joy to children, pray at night and celebrate Jesus’s coming and birth. Last year was very harsh on us, and this year is harsh with the atmosphere of war, martyrs and the life we’re living. We can’t handle it. We don’t know how to describe it. It’s extremely difficult. It is misery.”

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces killed at least eight Palestinians Wednesday as troops backed by armed drones attacked the Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps. Among those killed were two Palestinian women and an 18-year-old.