The Gaza war will go on for ‘many months’: Israel

STORY: Israeli artillery and airstrikes pounded targets in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. Military operations intensified around Christmas, particularly in the central part of Gaza.This video released by the Palestine Red Crescent Society is said to show paramedics handling a body in a refugee camp hit by an airstrike on Christmas. Gaza's health ministry says the attack killed at least 70 people, including many women and children.In the city of Rafah, a mass grave was made for about 80 bodies said to have been found and turned over by Israeli forces.Israeli forces says they're doing what they can to protect civilians in the war it says is aimed at eradicating the Hamas militant group, which hides among civilians – a claim Hamas denies.In a hospital in another Gaza city, Khan Younis, Reuters journalists found Hamdi Shaat mourning the body of his oldest son.He's saying his son was supposed to enroll at a university in Turkey before the war started and he was killed.This is his homeland, he says, and redemption for Palestine and the resistance, meaning Hamas.The United States government is openly pressing its ally Israel to scale down the war to a more targeted operations or raids on Hamas leaders. But Israel's top general on Tuesday said the war would go on "for many months."He says, "There are no magic solutions, there are no shortcuts in dismantling a terrorist organization, only determined and persistent fighting, and we are very, very determined."