Israel-Hamas conflict: Hamas accuses Israel of bombing, killing more hostages, more than 200 dead in past 24 hours

According to Reuters, Hamas forces announced on the evening of December 23 that they had lost contact with the group responsible for holding five Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip after being bombed by Tel Aviv.

A mourner stands next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. (Source: Reuters)

Hamas says it has lost contact with the group responsible for the capture of five Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip due to Israeli bombing.

The hostages may have been killed in the Israeli raid, according to Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.

Hamas said last month that more than 60 hostages were missing as a result of Israeli air strikes. There has been no confirmation of that figure, but Israel believes that at least 20 of the 130 hostages still held in Gaza are dead.

The force released more than 100 hostages as part of a week-long ceasefire in late November that included the release of 240 Palestinian women and teenagers from Israeli prisons.

Families of the hostages held a new protest on December 23, demanding that Israel consider releasing senior Palestinian militants from prison in any new swap deal.

The death toll in Gaza during the 11-week offensive has risen to 20,258, while another 53,688 have been injured. Thousands more bodies are believed to be trapped under rubble across the strip.

At least 201 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 370 wounded by Israeli forces in the past 24 hours in Gaza as the offensive on the besieged enclave nears its 12th week.

A bombing at the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza killed at least eight Palestinians, including children, on December 23, while another attack on the Jabalia camp is reported to have killed dozens more.

According to Al Jazeera , Israeli attacks across Gaza "have become much more intense".

Shelling and shelling in northern areas continues as decomposing bodies are found after days of ground fighting in these areas, Al Jazeera correspondents said.

Israel says 144 of its soldiers have been killed since launching a ground offensive on October 20, two weeks after Hamas launched an unprecedented offensive that killed 1,147 people and took 240 hostages in the enclave.

More than 100 detainees are believed to still be in Gaza after some were exchanged during a week-long ceasefire last month. Of those still in Gaza, 22 have died, the Israeli government said.

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