In the first three days of the new year, at least 82 Palestinians were killed by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip. The missiles targeted various locations across Gaza, including residential areas, hospitals and designated humanitarian zones.

On January 1, Al Jazeera reported, “Two separate Israeli attacks on Jabalia in northern Gaza and the central Bureij refugee camp have killed at least 17 people. Overall, Israeli air raids have killed at least 28 Palestinians since dawn.” Most of the victims were women and children.

Associated Press reported a third strike on New Year’s Day in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis which killed three people, according to Nasser Hospital and the European Hospital, which received the bodies.

AP also reported other air strikes killed another 42 people overnight and into Friday. “Staff at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said that more than a dozen women and children were killed in strikes in central Gaza, including in Nuseirat, Zawaida, Maghazi and Deir al-Balah.”

The Gaza Health Ministry reported the death toll has reached more than 45,500 Palestinians killed and nearly 90 percent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people have been displaced since the genocide began in October 2023. The ethnic cleansing campaign has continued for 450 days, or more than 100 Palestinians have been killed per day on average by the Zionist regime of Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli army justified the New Year’s onslaught by claiming it struck dozens of Hamas gathering points and command centers. As usual, however, no evidence or details were provided to back up the assertion.

In a statement on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that Hamas will “suffer blows of a magnitude not seen in Gaza for a long time” if it does not release the remaining hostages and stop firing at Israel.

Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians live in tents on the coast, as winter is bringing rainstorms and temperatures that are dropping below 10 ℃ (50 ℉) at night. According to the Health Ministry, at least six infants and another person have died of hypothermia in recent days.

Children in Gaza are succumbing to hypothermia due to a convergence of factors stemming from the deteriorating living conditions from the ongoing Zionist campaign, including displacement and inadequate shelter, resource shortages, malnutrition and health complications.

The displacement of nearly 2 million residents, forcing many into makeshift shelters and tents that offer minimal protection against the cold, has left Palestinians extremely vulnerable. The harsh winter conditions, including cold nighttime temperatures, are particularly perilous for infants and young children who are less capable of regulating body temperature.

The critical lack of essential supplies, including blankets, warm clothing and heating devices, resulting from the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian enclave, has exacerbated shortages and blocked relief efforts by humanitarian organizations.

Widespread malnutrition has weakened children’s immune systems, making them more susceptible to illnesses like hypothermia. The scarcity of medical supplies and the overwhelming number of patients have strained healthcare facilities, impeding effective treatment.

NBC News reported an interview with the father of infant twins who were born prematurely and were living in a tent after they fled northern Gaza. The father recounted how he “woke to the sounds of his wife desperately trying to rouse their newborn twins as they lay motionless in the cold tent—now home to the family of eight after they had fled from northern Gaza’s Beit Lahia. They raced Jumaa and Ali to the Al-Aqsa hospital, but it was too late for baby Jumaa, Batran said. ‘He was frozen.’

“ ‘I couldn’t protect my children. I watched them die in front of my eyes,’ Batran said, describing how he had slept without a blanket at night, using everything the family had to keep his children warm.”

In the West Bank, the Wafa news agency reported that a child was injured by shrapnel from live ammunition fired by Israeli troops during a raid of the town of Tuqu, southeast of Bethlehem. Israeli soldiers fired bullets, tear gas and sound bombs at homes in the town, and bullet fragments penetrated the window of one home, injuring the child in the eye. Israeli forces also raided Idhna, ash-Shuyukh and Arroub in the Hebron governorate in the West Bank.

At midnight on Thursday, Israel forces carried out a bombing operation in the vicinity of the town of Bani Haiyyan in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese National News Agency (NNA).

Another attack was reported in Kfar Kila, and “the sound of which was heard throughout the south,” NNA reports. The agency also reported earlier that Israeli forces are “combing the city of Bint Jbeil with heavy machine guns” from their positions on the outskirts of the town of Maroun al-Ras.

The attacks are the latest violations by Israel of a ceasefire with Hezbollah that it agreed to in late November. The Israeli Defense Forces said it struck Hezbollah rocket launchers in southern Lebanon.

The stepped up genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon is an indication that the US-backed war campaign of Israel in the Middle East against primarily Iran is expanding and moving forward in 2025.

On New Year’s Eve, the Biden administration also directed new air strikes on Yemen. The Washington Post reported, “U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, said the attacks struck targets in coastal Yemen and the capital, Sanaa, including a command node and facilities used for manufacturing and storing weapons.”

Biden’s criminal war on Yemen, a country of 34 million people in the southern Arabian Peninsula, is being coordinated with Israel and carried out behind the backs of the American public and without authorization from Congress. The White House and Pentagon are concealing their strategic aim of subordinating the entire region to the interests of US imperialism.