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.

Ukraine’s military says it shot down 20 out of 31 drones launched by Russia in overnight attacks. One of the drones struck a market in the Ukrainian town of Nikopol, injuring eight people. That followed a wave of Russian attacks on Christmas Day targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which left hundreds of thousands of people in Kharkiv without power or heat amid freezing winter temperatures. There were also blackouts in the capital Kyiv, where some residents spent Christmas sheltering in underground subway stations.

Nataliia Ziumchenko: “I am scared, because I have a child. Of course I want to be at home and celebrate. We had to shelter, because it’s scary to stay at home, so we came to the shelter. We want peace.”

In the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, one person was killed and 15 others injured on Wednesday when a ballistic missile fired by Russia struck their apartment building. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attacks as “inhuman.”

Meanwhile, the governor of Russia’s North Ossetia region says a woman was killed at a shopping center in the city of Vladikavkaz when falling debris from a Ukrainian drone that was shot down triggered an explosion and fire.

In Kazakhstan, 38 passengers were killed Wednesday when an Azerbaijani airliner with 67 people on board crashed near the city of Aktau. Twenty-nine survivors were hospitalized. The Embraer 190 passenger jet had been en route from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny when it veered hundreds of miles off its scheduled route before crashing on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea. A Russian civil aviation official said a preliminary investigation revealed a bird strike led pilots to attempt to divert the flight. But a Ukrainian official said Russia had used a surface-to-air missile system to shoot the plane down, after mistaking it for a Ukrainian drone. That claim was bolstered by footage from the crash site appearing to show shrapnel damage to the plane’s tail section.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has threatened to “bury” Kurdish fighters in Syria unless they lay down their arms. Erdoğan made the threat during remarks to the Turkish parliament on Wednesday, insisting the Kurdish YPG militia must disband.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: “As I said after the Cabinet meeting, business as usual is no longer possible. The separatist murderers will either bid farewell to their weapons or be buried in Syrian soil alongside their weapons.”

On Monday, thousands of women rallied in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli demanding Syria’s new leaders respect women’s rights. They also condemned Turkish-backed attacks on Kurdish groups. Many of the protesters waved the green, yellow and red flags of the Women’s Protection Units, an affiliate of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units militia that Turkey considers a terrorist organization.

Hemrin Ali: “Today, all women in the Jazira region, including Kurds, Arabs and Syriacs, are uniting their voices, saying yes to supporting the Women’s Protection Units, YPJ, yes to preserving the rights and gains of the women’s revolution in northern and eastern Syria. Today, we are safeguarding all the achievements of northern and eastern Syria by demanding freedom and rights for all women, without discrimination.”

Later in the broadcast, we’ll go to Damascus for an update from Syrian journalist and BBC Middle East correspondent Lina Sinjab.

In Mozambique, dozens of people have been killed in clashes with police after opposition parties rejected the results of a presidential election that protesters claim was rigged by the governing party. Human rights groups have accused security forces and police of excessive force, at times firing live rounds at protesters. On Monday, Mozambique’s top court upheld the election victory of Daniel Chapo of the ruling Frelimo party. Mozambique’s main opposition leader, Venâncio Mondlane, rejected the outcome and declared that he will install himself as president on January 15.

Venâncio Mondlane: “This Christmas, while the people are being massacred, while the people are being killed, while the people are being humiliated, what Christmas are we going to have? Yes, we’re going to have Christmas. We’ve already said that our Christmas is Mozambique. It’s going to be on the streets.”

In Haiti, two journalists and a police officer were killed Tuesday when gunmen opened fire on a news conference in the capital Port-au-Prince. Several others were wounded in the Christmas Eve attack, which left reporters Markenzy Nathoux and Jimmy Jean dead. Media workers had gathered to interview Haiti’s new health minister at the reopening of Port-au-Prince’s biggest public hospital, which has been closed for much of the year amid a surge in violence.

Here in the United States, a federal judge struck down key portions of an Arkansas state law that would have allowed prosecutors to bring criminal charges against booksellers or librarians for providing minors with access to so-called harmful materials. Offenders faced up to a year in prison. U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks ruled the law violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, writing, “The law deputizes librarians and booksellers as the agents of censorship; when motivated by the fear of jail time, it is likely they will shelve only books fit for young children and segregate or discard the rest.” The ACLU of Arkansas celebrated the ruling, writing, “This was an attempt to 'thought police,' and this victory over totalitarianism is a testament to the courage of librarians, booksellers, and readers who refused to bow to intimidation.”