Mourners hug each other during the funeral of Palestinians who, according to medics, were killed in an Israeli strike on Sunday, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, January 11, 2026.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Israel hammered Gaza City and its outskirts overnight, residents said on Thursday (August 21, 2025), as the military announced it had taken initial steps in its push to capture Hamas’s last major stronghold.

The newly approved plan authorises the call-up of roughly 60,000 reservists, deepening fears that the campaign will worsen the already catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

“We are not waiting. We have begun the preliminary actions, and already now, IDF (army) troops are holding the outskirts of Gaza City,” said the Israeli military.

Israel’s plans to expand the fighting and seize Gaza City have sparked international outcry as well as domestic opposition. The Red Cross became the latest voice to condemn the plan on Thursday, calling it “intolerable”.

Ahead of the offensive, the Israeli military said the call-up of the reservists would begin in early September, adding the second phase of operation “Gideon’s Chariots” had begun.

Gaza City residents described relentless bombardments overnight.

“The house shakes with us all night long — the sound of explosions, artillery, warplanes, ambulances, and cries for help is killing us,” one of them, Ahmad al-Shanti, told AFP.

“The sound is getting closer, but where would we go?”

Another resident, Amal Abdel-Aal, said she watched the heavy strikes on the area, a week after being displaced from her home in Gaza City’s Al-Sabra neighbourhood.

“No one in Gaza has slept — not last night, not for a week. The artillery and air strikes in the east never stop. The sky flashes all night long,” she added.

Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said air strikes and artillery fire overnight targeted areas to the northwest and southeast of Gaza City.

‘Nowhere safe to go’

Late Thursday, the Israeli military detailed a range of operations across the Gaza Strip in recent weeks.

It said the manoeuvres and strikes “created the conditions” for the military to intensify pressure on Hamas and lay the groundwork for the next stages of the campaign.

The UN humanitarian agency has warned the Israeli plan to expand military operations in Gaza City would have “a horrific humanitarian impact” on the already exhausted population.

“Forcing hundreds of thousands to move south is a recipe for further disaster and could amount to forcible transfer,” OCHA said. The UN Human Rights office in the Palestinian territories also voiced concern.

“Hundreds of families have been forced to flee, including many children, persons with disabilities, and older people, with nowhere safe to go,” it said.

Others reportedly “remain trapped, completely cut off from food, water and medicine supplies”, it added.

The Israeli military said this week it had also begun informing medical personnel and aid groups in northern Gaza to start making evacuation plans and transferring their equipment to the south.

As Israel tightened its grip on Gaza City’s outskirts, meditators continued to wait for an official Israeli reaction to their latest ceasefire proposal that Hamas accepted earlier this week.

‘Ball’ in Israel’s court

Israel and Hamas have held a string of indirect negotiations throughout the nearly two-year conflict, paving the way for a pair of short ceasefires during which Israeli hostages were freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Of the 251 captives kidnapped during Hamas’s October 2023 onslaught on southern Israel that triggered the war, 49 are still in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

Sources from Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad told AFP this week that the latest ceasefire proposal calls for the release of 10 hostages and 18 bodies from Gaza.

The remaining hostages would be released in a second phase alongside talks for a wider settlement.

Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have overseen several rounds of shuttle diplomacy.

Qatar said the latest proposal was “almost identical” to an earlier version approved by Israel, while Egypt said Monday that “the ball is now in its (Israel’s) court”.

Late Wednesday, Hamas lambasted the plans to take control of Gaza City, saying in a statement it showed its “blatant disregard” for efforts to broker a ceasefire and hostage release deal.

Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s offensive has killed at least 62,122 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which the United Nations considers reliable.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.

Published – August 21, 2025 08:57 pm IST

Jerusalem:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Sunday to “open the gates of hell” in Gaza if Hamas does not return all hostages, pointing to a joint US-Israeli strategy to take on the Palestinian militants.

“We have a common strategy, and we can’t always share the details of this strategy with the public, including when the gates of hell will be opened, as they surely will if all our hostages are not released until the last one,” Netanyahu said in a joint statement with visiting US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“We will eliminate Hamas’s military capability and its political rule in Gaza,” the statement added. “We will bring all our hostages home, and we will ensure that Gaza never again poses a threat to Israel.

“The unequivocal support of the United States on Gaza will help us achieve these objectives faster and set us on a path for a different future,” Netanyahu said.

He added that he discussed with Rubio US President Donald Trump’s “bold vision for Gaza’s future and will work to ensure that vision becomes a reality”.

Trump recently suggested that the US take over the Gaza Strip and turn it into a “Riviera of the Middle East”, while resettling the territory’s two million Palestinian residents in other countries, namely Egypt and Jordan.

The proposal has triggered global outrage.

Rubio on Sunday acknowledged that Trump’s proposal for Gaza “may have shocked and surprised” many.

But he said “the president’s also been very bold about his view of what the future for Gaza should be, not the same tired ideas of the past, but something that’s bold and something that, frankly, took courage and vision.

“What cannot continue is the same cycle where we repeat over and over again and wind up in the exact same place,” Rubio said. “Hamas cannot continue as a military or a government force… they must be eliminated… it must be eradicated.”

He added that the first priority for Trump is that the hostages held in Gaza since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack “need to come home, they need to be released”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Jerusalem:

Israel threatened on Tuesday to resume “intense fighting” in Gaza if no hostages were released this weekend, echoing a warning from US President Donald Trump that has strained the fragile truce deal.

Donald Trump, who has taken credit for securing the agreement that went into effect last month, said that “hell” would break out if Hamas failed to release “all” Israeli hostages by Saturday.

As he was hosting Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday, Trump was asked whether his deadline still held, and said “Yes”.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, which has largely halted more than 15 months of fighting in Gaza, hostages were to be released in batches in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli custody. So far, Israel and Hamas have completed five hostage-prisoner swaps.

But the agreement has come under increasing strain in recent days, prompting diplomatic efforts to salvage it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “if Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon, the ceasefire will end, and the IDF (Israeli military) will resume intense fighting until Hamas is decisively defeated”.

Tensions, which initially spiked after Trump proposed last month taking over Gaza and removing its more than two million inhabitants, have grown following his latest comments.

“As far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday 12 o’clock… I would say cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out,” Trump said on Monday.

Senior Hamas leader Sami Abu Zuhri said Trump’s remark “further complicates matters”.

“Trump must remember that there is an agreement that must be respected by both parties and this is the only way to return” the hostages, he told AFP.

His group said it would postpone the next hostage release, scheduled for Saturday, accusing Israel of violating the deal and calling for it to fulfil its obligations.

‘No more phases’

Netanyahu’s statement, issued after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, did not specify whether he was referring to all captives, but his Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right leader, called on the premier to “open the gates of hell” if Israel doesn’t get back “all the hostages… by Saturday”.

“No more phases, no more games,” Smotrich said in a statement.

UN chief Antonio Guterres has urged Hamas to proceed with the planned release.

“We must avoid at all costs resumption of hostilities in Gaza that would lead to immense tragedy,” he said on X.

Yemen’s Huthi rebels, who are aligned with Hamas and have launched attacks throughout the war in support of the Palestinians, said on Tuesday they were “ready to launch a military intervention at any time in case of escalation against Gaza”.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it had decided “to raise the level of readiness” of its forces near the Gaza Strip and “increase reinforcements with additional troops, including reservists”.

Outside Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem, several families of hostages rallied with pictures of their loved ones, calling for the implementation of the existing deal.

“We can’t afford another arm wrestling between the sides. There is a deal. Go for it!” said Zahiro, whose uncle, Avraham Munder, died in captivity in Gaza.

Relatives of four hostages said on Tuesday that recently freed captives told them that their loved ones were alive, but shared concerning details about their conditions.

Avishag Levy, whose cousin Eliya Cohen was abducted from the site of a music festival, told a parliamentary session she had heard from ex-hostages over the weekend that he was being held in chains and suffering from malnutrition and torture.

In the five hostage-prisoner swaps so far, 16 Israeli hostages have been freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

‘The people pay the price’

In Gaza, concerns over the fate of the ceasefire were prevalent.

“I pray that the ceasefire holds, but there are no guarantees because the ruling faction in Israel wants war, and I believe there is also a faction within Hamas that wants war,” said Adnan Qassem, 60, from Deir el-Balah.

“The people are the ones who suffer and pay the price.”

Trump’s latest threat came hours after Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said the hostage release scheduled for Saturday was postponed.

It accused Israel of failing to meet its commitments under the agreement, including on aid, and cited the deaths of three Gazans at the weekend.

But the group said “the door remains open for the prisoner exchange batch to proceed as planned, once the occupation complies”.

Talks on a second phase were supposed to start on day 16 of the truce, but Israel had refused to send negotiators to Doha.

The Gaza war was triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Militants also took 251 hostages, of whom 73 remain in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead. Earlier on Tuesday, officials announced the death of Shlomo Mansour, an elderly Israeli hostage whose body is still held in Gaza.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the war has killed at least 48,218 people in the territory, figures the UN considers reliable.

A UN report issued on Tuesday said that more than $53 billion will be required to rebuild Gaza and end the “humanitarian catastrophe” in the devastated territory.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Khan Yunis:

Hamas on Saturday released two out of three Israeli hostages in the fourth exchange of the ceasefire deal, ahead of the expected release of 183 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

Ofer Kalderon and Yarden Bibas were paraded on a stage before being released to the Red Cross in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, AFP journalists reported, while Keith Siegel is set to be freed in a similar ceremony at Gaza City’s port in the north.

Israel’s military later confirmed that Bibas and Kalderon were back on Israeli territory.

After holding them hostage for more than 15 months, militants in Gaza began releasing captives on January 19, as the first phase of a ceasefire with Israel took effect.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants have so far handed over 18 hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, many of them women and minors.

Later Saturday, Israel will free 183 prisoners, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group said.

“The updated number of prisoners to be released tomorrow is 183,” the Club’s spokeswoman Amani Sarahneh said Friday, after previously announcing that 90 prisoners would be freed.

During their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which started the Gaza war, militants abducted American-Israeli Siegel from the Kfar Aza kibbutz community, and Bibas and French-Israeli Kalderon from kibbutz Nir Oz.

Militants took a total of 251 people hostage that day. Of those, 76 remain in Gaza, including at least 34 the military says are dead.

Those seized include Bibas’s wife and two children, whom Hamas has declared dead, although Israeli officials have not confirmed that.

The two Bibas boys — Kfir, the youngest hostage whose second birthday was earlier this month, and his older brother Ariel whose fifth birthday was in August — have become symbols of the hostages’ ordeal.

The children were taken along with their mother, Shiri. Hamas says an Israeli air strike in November 2023 killed all three.

“Our Yarden is supposed to return tomorrow and we are so excited but Shiri and the children still haven’t returned,” the Bibas family said on Instagram Friday. “We have such mixed emotions and we are facing extremely complex days.”

“Hamas, where are the Bibas babies?” Israel’s foreign ministry posted on X. “483 days have passed. Where are they?”

Crowds mostly absent 

Ahead of both exchanges in Khan Yunis Gaza and Gaza City, scores of masked Hamas fighters stood sentry, apparently to control onlookers.

In contrast to Thursday’s frenzied exchange which drew Israeli condemnation, large crowds were mostly absent.

Green Hamas and Palestinian flags flew at the Gaza port in a strong breeze.

Ranks of heavily armed Hamas fighters held portraits of the group’s dead leaders, including military chief Mohammed Deif, accused by Israel of being a mastermind of the October 7 attack and whose death was confirmed on Thursday.

The arrangements for hostage handovers in Gaza have sometimes been chaotic, particularly Thursday’s release in Khan Yunis.

Israel briefly delayed its prisoner release on Thursday in protest, and the ICRC urged all parties to improve security.

When Saturday’s hostage release is completed, Gaza’s key Rafah border crossing with Egypt is expected to reopen, a Hamas official and a source with knowledge of discussions told AFP.

“The mediators informed Hamas of Israel’s approval to open Rafah crossing tomorrow, Saturday, after the completion of the fourth batch of prisoner exchange,” the Hamas official said.

Rafah was a vital entry point for aid into Gaza before the Israeli military seized the Palestinian side of the crossing in May.

The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said on Friday the bloc has deployed a monitoring mission at the crossing “to support Palestinian border personnel and allow the transfer of individuals out of Gaza, including those who need medical care”.

‘Where’s Dad?’ 

On Thursday, Israeli authorities released 110 inmates from Ofer prison, including high-profile former militant commander Zakaria Zubeidi, 49, who received a hero’s welcome in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

On Friday, he called for “all our Palestinian people” to be freed from Israeli jails.

“The situation of the prisoners is very difficult and we hope for their urgent release,” Zubeidi told AFP.

Also freed was Hussein Nasser, who received little attention from the crowd but was at the centre of his daughter’s world.

“Where’s Dad?” Raghda Nasser, 21, asked tearfully as she moved through the crowd, an AFP correspondent reported.

Her mother was pregnant with her when he was jailed 22 years ago.

“I just visited him behind the glass in Israeli prisons. I cannot express my feelings,” Raghda said.

The fragile ceasefire’s 42-day first phase hinges on the release of a total of 33 hostages in exchange for around 1,900 people, mostly Palestinians, in Israeli jails.

Negotiations for a second phase of the deal are set to start on Monday, according to a timeline provided by an Israeli official.

This phase is expected to cover the release of the remaining captives and to include discussions on a more permanent end to the war.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Gaza City:

Palestinian operator group Hamas said Monday that Gaza and its people “will rise again” and rebuild the territory battered by more than 15 months of Israeli bombardment.

“Gaza, with its great people and its resilience, will rise again to rebuild what the occupation has destroyed and continue on the path of steadfastness until the occupation is defeated,” Hamas said in a statement issued on the second day of a ceasefire with Israel.

“Over the course of 471 days, the systematic crimes of the occupation have failed to dissuade our people and their valiant resistance from clinging to the land and confronting the aggression.”

The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel’s blistering military response has killed at least 46,913 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

An initial 42-day truce came into effect on Sunday, with Hamas and Israel conducting a swap in which three Israeli hostages were released by the operators in exchange for some 90 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israel jails.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Tel Aviv was filled with hope, tears of joy and hugs on Sunday as three Israeli hostages who were held captive by Hamas reunited with their families in the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal. The three women – Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari – were handed over to the Red Cross officials by armed men in camouflaged military gear, with green Hamas headbands.

The three women were held captive by Hamas during its attack on October 7, 2023, which killed at least 1200 people. The Lebanon-backed group released them in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared videos and pictures of the three women – draped in Israeli flags – reuniting with their families. Visuals showed the women embracing their mothers at a reception center, with one of the hostages waving a bandaged hand missing two fingers at her family on the other end of a mobile phone video call.

First photographs from the emotional meetings between the returnees and their families at the reception points in Israel. pic.twitter.com/98MPwh0zNX

— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) January 19, 2025

“We didn’t have any sign of life from her for a whole year and this is the first time we are seeing her, and we are seeing her walking on her two feet and we are just waiting here to hug her and say how much we love her,” said the family of the released hostages.

Netanyahu, welcoming the women back home, said on the phone: “I would like you to tell them: Romi, Doron and Emily – an entire nation embraces you. Welcome home”.

Welcome home!
Video of the emotional meetings between Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, and Doron Steinbrecher with their families at Sheba Medical Center. pic.twitter.com/CJYdJXiaSX

— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) January 19, 2025

Apart from the families of the three released hostages, thousands of people, some cheering and crying, gathered in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv as a giant screen broadcasted the first glimpse of the women. A group of Israelis also played music and sang patriotic songs.

On the other hand, massive celebrations with fireworks took place in Gaza as buses carrying the Palestinian prisoners arrived in Ramallah on the West Bank.

Ending more than 15 months of war that killed over 47,000 people, Israel began a six-week ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza on Sunday, nearly three hours after its initial schedule. Negotiations for the second phase of the agreement will begin by the 16th day of phase one. It is likely to include the release of the remaining 94 hostages. 

In the last phase of the ceasefire, all the remaining dead bodies are expected to be returned.

The family of 19-year-old Liri Albag, an Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas since October 7, 2023, said she looks “broken and shattered” in a recent video released by the militant group on Saturday. In the three-and-a-half-minute footage, Ms Albag, visibly distressed, speaks of being held for over 450 days.

“Today we received a sign of life from Liri; the video is hard to watch,” her mother, Shira Albag, said in a statement. “This is not the Liri we know. This is the shadow of Liri.”

שירה אלבג, אמה של לירי אלבג: ״עם ישראל היקר, קיבלנו היום אות חיים מלירי; סרטון שלנו קשה לראות. זאת לא לירי שאנחנו מכירים. רה״מ דיבר איתנו, נשיא המדינה, הרמטכ״ל, שר הביטחון ואמרנו להם שיעשו עסקה. זה הזמן. יש את לירי ועוד 99 חטופים שצריכים לחזור הביתה במהרה> pic.twitter.com/hjBHYKxXMP

— Raz Shechnik (@RazShechnik) January 4, 2025

“This is not the same daughter and sister that we know. She is in bad condition, and her difficult mental state is evident,” the family said in a longer statement cited by the Times of Israel. “The always-strong Liri looks broken and shattered.”

Liri Albag, a surveillance soldier stationed at the Nahal Oz military base near the Gaza border, was among 251 individuals abducted during Hamas’s assault on southern Israel. Of the seven surveillance soldiers taken, one was rescued, and another was found dead in captivity. Liri Albag and four others – Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Naama Levy, and Daniella Gilboa – remain in Gaza.

“This is the time. There is Liri and 99 other hostages who need to return home soon,” Ms Albag’s mother said. “Every day in Hamas’s hell in Gaza poses an immediate risk of death to the living hostages and endangers the ability to recover the fallen for proper burial.”

The Albag family appealed directly to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging the government to prioritise the hostages’ release. “We saw our heroic Liri survive and beg for her life. She is several dozen kilometres from us, and for 456 days we have been unable to bring her home,” they said. “Make decisions regarding the hostages as if your children were there. Liri is alive and must come back alive! It depends only on you.”

The October 7 attack by Hamas, backed by allied groups, killed about 1,200 Israelis. Since then, Israel has relentlessly targeted schools, hospitals, neighbourhoods, and camps housing internally displaced people. The Benjamin Netanyahu-led government, with unwavering support from the United States, still continues its offensive in Gaza. Israeli airstrikes have killed over 45,000 Palestinians and left nearly the entire population of the densely packed territory displaced.

New Delhi:

The American Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defence system was used to intercept a ballistic missile launched at Israel from Yemen yesterday. The missile was reportedly fired by the Houthi rebels, a group backed by Iran.

The THAAD system, deployed in Israel by the United States in October, was activated to intercept the missile for the first time, the Times of Israel reported. Footage circulated on social media showing the system launching an interceptor, accompanied by the voice of an American soldier exclaiming, “Eighteen years I’ve been waiting for this.” 

While the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed the missile’s interception, they did not specify whether the system used was Israeli or American. However, security sources told the Walla news site that THAAD had successfully engaged the missile, the report said. 

The deployment of THAAD in Israel followed an October 1 ballistic missile attack by Iran. The advanced system is capable of intercepting missiles both inside and outside the Earth’s atmosphere.

מערכת ה- THAAD האמריקנית לקחה חלק ביירוט הטיל הבליסטי ששוגר אמש מתימן. אפשר לשמוע את אחד החיילים האמריקניים מתרגש “18 שנים חיכיתי לזה” pic.twitter.com/s4VoMfMhaF

— איתי בלומנטל Itay Blumental (@ItayBlumental) December 27, 2024

The THAAD system, developed by the United States, is designed to intercept short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles during their terminal phase. Unlike conventional systems, THAAD relies on kinetic energy to neutralise threats, destroying incoming missiles through impact rather than an explosive warhead.

A standard THAAD battery includes six truck-mounted launchers, each capable of holding up to eight interceptors, along with a radar and a fire control system. The system’s radar can detect threats from a range of 870 to 3,000 kilometres.

The Houthi missile launch marked the fifth such attack on Israel in just eight days. The Iran-backed group claimed to have targeted Ben Gurion Airport. In response, Israeli warplanes launched strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, including the Hezyaz power plant and infrastructure at Sanaa International Airport.

The Houthis have launched more than 200 missiles and 170 drones at Israel over the past year, according to the IDF, however, the majority of these threats were intercepted or fell short of their targets. The group has also disrupted commercial shipping in the Red Sea, targeting over 100 merchant vessels and forcing carriers to reroute.

The Houthis have explicitly linked their actions to the ongoing conflict in Gaza, which erupted on October 7, 2023, following Palestinian group Hamas’ attack on Israel. 

Christmas revellers around the world donned red and white Santa hats, offered meals to the homeless and lit candles on Wednesday, as Pope Francis launched observation of the global holiday with a sombre mass in the Vatican.

At Saint Peter’s Basilica, Francis used his Christmas Eve mass to urge Christians to think “of the wars, of the machine-gunned children, of the bombs on schools or hospitals” as this year’s Christmas once again takes place under the shadow of Israel’s war on Hamas and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

His remarks come just days after he denounced the “cruelty” of Israeli strikes, which prompted objections from Israeli diplomats.

Francis is due to deliver his traditional Christmas Day blessing, Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world), at midday on Wednesday, while in the biblical birthplace of Jesus, the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, observations of the holiday have been muted.

For the second year in a row, Bethlehem has done away with its giant Christmas tree and the elaborate decorations that normally draw throngs of tourists, settling for just a few festive lights.

“This year we limited our joy,” Bethlehem mayor Anton Salman told AFP.

Prayers, including at the Church of the Nativity’s famed midnight mass, will still be held in the presence of the Catholic Church’s Latin patriarch, but the festivities will be of a more strictly religious nature.

The patriarch, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, told a small crowd on Tuesday that he had just returned from Gaza, where he “saw everything destroyed, poverty, disaster”.

“But I also saw life — they don’t give up. So you should not give up either. Never.”

At Manger Square, in the heart of the Palestinian city, a group of scouts held a parade that broke the silence.

“Our children want to play and laugh,” read a sign carried by one of them, as his friends whistled and cheered.

Other banners said: “We want life, not death”, and “Stop the Gaza genocide now!”

Jerusalem resident Hisham Makhoul said spending Christmas in the holy city offered an “escape” from the Israel-Hamas war, which has raged for more than 14 months in the Gaza Strip.

“What we’re going through is very difficult and we can’t completely forget about it,” said Makhoul of the plight of Palestinians in the besieged territory.

Gaza and Syria

About 1,100 Christians live in Gaza, which is separated from the West Bank by Israeli territory.

Hundreds of Gazan Christians gathered at a church to pray for an end to the war.

“This Christmas carries the stench of death and destruction,” said George al-Sayegh, who for weeks has sought refuge in the 12th-century Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City.

“There is no joy, no festive spirit. We don’t even know who will survive until the next holiday.”

In a message to Christians all over the world, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked them for supporting Israel’s fight against the “forces of evil”.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, hundreds of people took to the streets in Christian areas of Damascus to protest the burning of a Christmas tree in a Syrian town, just over two weeks after Islamist-led rebels ousted president Bashar al-Assad.

“If we’re not allowed to live our Christian faith in our country, as we used to, then we don’t belong here anymore,” said a demonstrator who gave his name as Georges.

Santa tracker

In Germany, Christmas was also a grim affair for many families after a deadly attack at a market, prompting President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to issue a message of healing.

“Hatred and violence must not have the final word,” he said.

In Buenos Aires, a Christmas solidarity dinner for the homeless fed around three thousand people at a time when more than half of Argentina’s population is affected by poverty.

“To say that it is a special year because there is more and more poverty is sad, but it is true,” Mariana Gonzalez, spokesperson for the Movement of Excluded Workers, one of the organisers, said.

Still, the atmosphere was joyful with floating balloons, music and clowns, as elsewhere on Christmas Eve families shared meals and gifts.

In the United States, where the annual tradition of “tracking” Santa Claus swung into action, a US Air Force general said there was no need to worry that recent mystery drone sightings might affect deliveries.

General Gregory Guillot’s reassurances came as the joint US-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command reported that Santa and his reindeer were making stops across Asia, including Japan and North Korea.

“Of course, we are concerned about drones and anything else in the air,” NORAD commander Guillot told Fox News. “But I don’t foresee any difficulty at all with drones for Santa this year.”

And in Paris, worshippers gathered at the Notre Dame cathedral for the first Christmas mass since its reopening following a devastating fire in 2019.

“We got here early to attend 4:00 pm mass, and to get a good spot. It’s a superb monument,” said Julien Violle, a 40-year-old engineer who travelled to Paris from Switzerland along with his two children.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)