A Delaware state trooper who was shot to death at a DMV office was described Wednesday as dependable and professional on the job and steady and kind at home.
Cpl. Matthew “Ty” Snook, 34, of Hockessin, was working an overtime assignment at a Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles office near Wilmington on Tuesday when he was shot by a 44-year-old gunman, state police said. Authorities said Snook pushed a nearby employee to safety before he was shot again. He died later at a hospital, as did the gunman, who was shot by another officer.
Cpl. Matthew “Ty” Snook, 34, of Hockessin, is survived by his wife and their 1-year-old daughter.
Snook, who is survived by his wife and their 1-year-old daughter, was a Delaware native. He graduated from the University of Maryland, where he was a member of the wrestling team, and had been a trooper for 10 years.
“He was known as a dependable, professional, and committed trooper,” state police said in a news release that also described him as a trusted partner and beloved community member and extended condolences to Snook’s family.
“We are forever grateful to them for sharing ‘Ty’ with us and for the sacrifices they made in support of his service to the citizens of Delaware,” the agency said.
An official fund established to support the family describes the officer as a “loving husband, a devoted father, and a deeply cherished friend.”
“Those who knew him remember his steady presence, his kindness, and his unwavering commitment to the people he loved,” the fundraiser’s organizer wrote. “Family meant everything to Ty, and he worked every day to provide, protect, and be present for those closest to him.”
Authorities have not yet publicly identified the gunman or disclosed a possible motive for the shooting.
“What happened today was an act of pure evil, and if not for the heroism of several troopers and other officers, the consequences could have been so much worse,” Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer said at a news conference.
The state DMV closed its offices statewide, with all but the site of the shooting scheduled to reopen Monday.
Rosalyn Collins, the widow of pilot Monroe Smith, and Elaine Dougherty, the widow of photographer Christopher Dougherty, filed the lawsuit in Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia last week, just days before the two-year anniversary of the crash.
The TV station’s Chopper 6 crashed in December 2023 in Wharton State Forest in Burlington County on its way back to Northeast Philadelphia Airport.
The reason for the crash, the suit says, was a known defect in the design of the 2013 American Eurocopter AS-350A-STAR helicopter, which was manufactured by Airbus. The French aviation company has been warned for decades that the aircraft’s hydraulic system, which assists the pilot in controlling the helicopter’s rotor blades, was “defective and dangerous” and could leave pilots with few options, according to the complaint.
“If the system fails, the pilot must manually operate the helicopter and counteract enormously strong aerodynamic forces by brute strength,” the complaint says. “Manual control of the AS350B2, however, is exceedingly difficult, and often impossible.”
Map showing crash site of the 6abc-operated helicopter.
Chopper 6’s hydraulic system previously failed in 2019, and part of it was replaced by Sterling Helicopters, a Bucks County-based company that is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit. Sterling also inspected the hydraulic system in 2021, the suit said.
But the system failed again on the evening of the 2023 crash, which the suit says was “evidence” that the system’s parts were not designed to ”withstand such continuous use.”
Airbus declined to comment. Sterling did not respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit also names as defendants companies that produced parts of the helicopter’s hydraulic system.
Smith, 67, from Glenside, and Dougherty, 45, from Oreland, worked for U.S. Helicopters, a North Carolina company that owned the aircraft 6abc was leasing.
The duo had been part of the Action News team for years, the station said following the crash.
“Two really genuine people who have your best interest at heart and you can feel it,” Nicholas Thomas, a former colleague, said of Smith and Doughertyafter their deaths.
The lawsuit asks for an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages.
The Trump administration will begin seizing the pay of people in default on their student loans early next year, marking the first wave of new wage garnishments since the pandemic, the Education Department confirmed this week.
Starting the week of Jan. 7, the department told the Washington Post, it will notify about 1,000 defaulted borrowers of plans to withhold a portion of their wages to pay down their past-due debt. After that, the department said, notices will be sent to larger numbers of borrowers each month.
There were about 5.3 million borrowers who had not made a payment on their federal student loans for at least 360 days as of June 30, according to the latest available data from the Education Department. Many of them were in default before the federal government stopped collecting defaulted loans because of the pandemic nearly six years ago.
In May, the Trump administration resumed seizing tax refunds and Social Security benefits to recoup past-due student loan debt. At the time, the administration said wage garnishments would restart in the summer.
While the Education Department started the process over the summer, department spokesperson Ellen Keast said turning on the system after it was dormant for five years took more time than expected. She said the record-longgovernment shutdown further delayed the process.
There are several steps involved in wage garnishment, including identifying and verifying a borrower’s employer, who is ultimately responsible for withholding the money. By law, the Education Department must notify people in default 30 days before garnishing their wages. During that time, borrowers can request a hearing to challenge the order, pay the balance, or negotiate repayment terms to avoid garnishment.
The department can withhold up to 15% of a borrower’s disposable, or after-tax, income. The garnishment continues until the defaulted loans are paid off in full or the borrower takes action to get out of default.
Roughly 6 million people were at least 60 days late on their student loan payments as of August, according to an analysis of credit reporting data by the think tank Urban Institute.
The rise in delinquencies corresponds with the end of a 12-month grace period, known as the on-ramp, that allowed borrowers to ease their way back into repayment after a pandemic-related pause that lasted more than three years. Since the Biden administration’s policy ended Sept. 30, millions of borrowers have fallen behind on payments. And many of them could wind up in default.
Student loan borrowers have been spared from the most severe consequences of default since the early days of the pandemic. Back then, President Donald Trump instituted a moratorium on the collection of defaulted student loans that Congress later codified and extended in the 2020 stimulus package.
President Joe Biden’s administration extended the moratorium several times as part of the broader suspension of student loan payments. Under pressure from liberal lawmakers and student advocates, Biden allowed anyone in default on a federal loan held by the Education Department to rehabilitate the debt through an initiative called Fresh Start. While a portion of borrowers resolved their debt through the initiative, many remained in default.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon has called Biden’s policies irresponsible and blamed his administration for giving borrowers false hope of loan forgiveness that led to a rise in delinquencies.
When the Education Department announced the resumption of involuntary collection in April, McMahon said in a statement that “the Biden Administration misled borrowers: the executive branch does not have the constitutional authority to wipe debt away, nor do the loan balances simply disappear.”
Instead of promoting debt cancellation, McMahon said, the Trump administration will help borrowers return to repayment — “both for the sake of their own financial health and our nation’s economic outlook.”
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Wednesday that it may need a “few more weeks” to release all of its records on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after suddenly discovering more than a million potentially relevant documents, further delaying compliance with last Friday’s congressionally mandated deadline.
The Christmas Eve announcement came hours after a dozen U.S. senators called on the Justice Department’s watchdog to examine its failure to meet the deadline. The group, 11 Democrats and a Republican, told acting Inspector General Don Berthiaume in a letter that victims “deserve full disclosure” and the “peace of mind” of an independent audit.
The Justice Department said in a social media post that federal prosecutors in Manhattan and the FBI “have uncovered over a million more documents” that could be related to the Epstein case — a stunning 11th hour development after department officials suggested months ago that they had undertaken a comprehensive review that accounted for the vast universe of Epstein-related materials.
In March, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News that a “truckload of evidence” had been delivered to her after she ordered the Justice Department to “deliver the full and complete Epstein files to my office” — a directive she said she made after learning from an unidentified source that the FBI in New York was “in possession of thousands of pages of documents.”
In July, the FBI and Justice Department indicated in an unsigned memo that they had undertaken an “exhaustive review” and had determined that no additional evidence should be released — an extraordinary about-face from the Trump administration, which for months had pledged maximum transparency. The memo did not raise the possibility that additional evidence existed that officials were unaware of or had not reviewed.
Wednesday’s post did not say when the Justice Department was informed of the newly uncovered files.
In a letter last week, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Manhattan federal prosecutors already had more than 3.6 million records from sex trafficking investigations into Epstein and his longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, though many were copies of material already turned over by the FBI.
The Justice Department said its lawyers are “working around the clock” to review the documents and remove victims names and other identifying information as required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law enacted last month that requires the government to open its files on Epstein and Maxwell.
“We will release the documents as soon as possible,” the department said. “Due to the mass volume of material, this process may take a few more weeks.”
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, of Kentucky, one of the chief authors of the law mandating the document release, posted Wednesday on X: “DOJ did break the law by making illegal redactions and by missing the deadline.” Another architect of the law, Rep. Ro Khanna (D., Calif.), said he and Massie will “continue to keep the pressure on” and noted that the Justice Department was releasing more documents after lawmakers threatened contempt.
“A Christmas Eve news dump of ‘a million more files’ only proves what we already know: Trump is engaged in a massive cover-up,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said after DOJ’s announcement. “The question Americans deserve answered is simple: WHAT are they hiding — and WHY?”
The White House on Wednesday defended the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein records.
“President Trump has assembled the greatest cabinet in American history, which includes Attorney General Bondi and her team — like Deputy Attorney General Blanche — who are doing a great job implementing the President’s agenda,” spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement.
After releasing an initial wave of records on Friday, the Justice Department posted more batches to its website over the weekend and on Tuesday. The Justice Department has not given any notice when more records might arrive.
Records that have been released, including photographs, interview transcripts, call logs, court records, and other documents, were either already public or heavily blacked out, and many lacked necessary context. Records that hadn’t been seen before include transcripts of grand jury testimony from FBI agents who described interviews they had with several girls and young women who described being paid to perform sex acts for Epstein.
Other records made public in recent days include a note from a federal prosecutor from January 2020 that said Trump had flown on the financier’s private plane more often than had been previously known and emails between Maxwell and someone who signs off with the initial “A.” They contain other references that suggest the writer was Britain’s former Prince Andrew. In one, “A” writes: “How’s LA? Have you found me some new inappropriate friends?”
The senators’ call Wednesday for an inspector general audit comes days after Schumer introduced a resolution that, if passed, would direct the Senate to file or join lawsuits aimed at forcing the Justice Department to comply with the disclosure and deadline requirements. In a statement, he called the staggered, heavily redacted release “a blatant cover-up.”
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) and Jeff Merkley (D., Ore.) in leading the call for an inspector general audit. Others signing the letter were Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota; Adam Schiff of California; Dick Durbin of Illinois; Cory Booker and Andy Kim, both of New Jersey; Gary Peters of Michigan; Chris Van Hollen of Maryland; Mazie Hirono of Hawaii; and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.
“Given the (Trump) Administration’s historic hostility to releasing the files, politicization of the Epstein case more broadly, and failure to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a neutral assessment of its compliance with the statutory disclosure requirements is essential,” the senators wrote. Full transparency, they said, “is essential in identifying members of our society who enabled and participated in Epstein’s crimes.”
A segment of the Schuylkill River Trail that has beenclosed since October because of a sinkhole has been repaired, and reopened just in time for Christmas Eve.
Joe Syrnick, executive director of the nonprofit Schuylkill River Development Corp. (SRDC), said Wednesday afternoon that repairs finished earlier in the day.
But, he said Wednesday, the weather cooperated enough this week that a crew was able to complete the work over a few days, “as a holiday present for our trail users.”
This week, the hole was filled and paved. It reopened about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday after the paving had cooled.
“It’s open and people are already using it,” Syrnick said. “People are happy.”
Some cleanup is still needed around that area, he noted, and fencing needs to be removed. That should be finished by Friday or Monday, Syrnick said.
The Schuylkill River Trail is now open between JFK Boulevard and Race Street in Philadelphia, Pa., on Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025.
The sinkhole occurred between Race Street and JFK Boulevard, just north of the SEPTA Bridge, after it formed beneath the asphalt. The trail runs along Schuylkill Banks, a portion of the Schuylkill River Trail.
The SRDC works with the city to revitalize the Schuylkill corridor from the Fairmount Dam to the Delaware River, the eight-mile stretch known as Schuylkill Banks.
The sinkhole repair presented a problem that stemmed from a steel bulkhead that was built for the trail in 1995. The bulkhead helped extend land farther into the river and create more parkland.
But gaps developed in a seal between the bulkhead and concrete sewer infrastructure. Those gaps allowed soil to seep away with the tide, eventually washing away enough to create a sizable hole.
Syrnick said the SRDC and the Philadelphia Streets, Parks and Rec, and Water Departments worked together to come up with a solution.
So workers had to seal the gaps.
The weather was clear enough this week that crews were able to pour concrete to fill part of the hole and backfill it before paving it Wednesday.
Philadelphia is unlikely tohave a white Christmas, but snow is on the horizon for the weekend.
The National Weather Service on Wednesday afternoon issued a winter storm watch for much for eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The watch will be in effect from Friday afternoon through Saturday morning.
From Friday into Friday evening, forecasters are “near 100% confident” that most of the Philly area will get some form of winter precipitation, according tothe National Weather Service. But exactly what type of precipitation, how much, and the precise timing remains uncertain.
“We’re likely going to see an impactful winter storm,” said Eric Hoeflich, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly.
Philadelphia may get between 1 and 4 inches of snow Friday into the night, according to the National Weather Service. Light precipitation could linger into Saturday morning.
Forecasters expect between 1 and 3 inches of precipitation in northern Delaware, far southern New Jersey, and Southeastern Pennsylvania. Eastern Pennsylvania and much of New Jersey may see 4 to 7 inches. Actual precipitation totals and types, however, may vary. Some areas could get snow, sleet, freezing rain, or plain rain depending on temperatures and timing.
Ahead of the expected weekend storm, Philadelphians are unlikely to be greeted with snow-dusted streets on Christmas morning.
After sun and high temperatures in the 40s on Wednesday, Christmas Day may also bring above-average temperatures, with highs forecast in the mid-40s and a potential for light showers in the morning.
It will be “not great weather, but not bad either for late December,” according to forecasts from the National Weather Service.
Friday’s winter weather event would mark the second measurable snowfall of the season in Philly. The snowstorm that swept across the Philadelphia region on Dec. 14 dumped 4.2 inches of snow at Philadelphia International Airport. Some suburban communities in Bucks and Chester Counties recorded over 8 inches.
If you’re planning to travel on Friday evening, expect impacts to your plans, as roads may get snowy and icy.
WASHINGTON — A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a March presidential memorandum to revoke the security clearance of prominent Washington attorney Mark Zaid, ruling that the order — which also targeted 14 other individuals — could not be applied to him.
The decision marked the administration’s second legal setback on Tuesday, after the Supreme Court declined to allow Trump to deploy National Guard troops in the Chicago area, capping a first year in office in which President Donald Trump’s efforts to impose a sweeping agenda and pursue retribution against political adversaries have been repeatedly slowed by the courts.
U.S. District Judge Amir Ali in Washington granted Zaid’s request for a preliminary injunction, after he sued the Trump administration in May over the revocation of his security clearance. Zaid’s request called it an act of “improper political retribution” that jeopardized his ability to continue representing clients in sensitive national security cases.
The March presidential memorandum singled out Zaid and 14 other individuals who the White House asserted were unsuitable to retain their clearances because it was “no longer in the national interest.” The list included targets of Trump’s fury from both the political and legal spheres, including former Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, New York Attorney General Letitia James, former President Joe Biden, and members of his family.
The action was part of a much broader retribution campaign that Trump has waged since returning to the White House, including directing specific Justice Department investigations against perceived adversaries and issuing sweeping executive orders targeting law firms over legal work he does not like.
In August, the Trump administration said it was revoking the security clearances of 37 current and former national security officials. Ordering the revocation of clearances has been a favored retributive tactic that Trump has wielded — or at least tried to — against high-profile political figures, lawyers and intelligence officials in his second term.
Zaid said in his lawsuit that he has represented clients across the political spectrum over nearly 35 years, including government officials, law enforcement and military officials and whistleblowers. In 2019, he represented an intelligence community whistleblower whose account of a conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky helped set the stage for the first of two impeachment cases against Trump in his first term.
“This court joins the several others in this district that have enjoined the government from using the summary revocation of security clearances to penalize lawyers for representing people adverse to it,” Ali wrote in his order.
Ali emphasized that his order does not prevent the government from revoking or suspending Zaid’s clearance for reasons independent of the presidential memorandum and through normal agency processes. The preliminary injunction does not go into effect until January 13.
Zaid said in a statement, “This is not just a victory for me, it’s an indictment of the Trump administration’s attempts to intimidate and silence the legal community, especially lawyers who represent people who dare to question or hold this government accountable.”
The Pentagon assesses that China’s production of nuclear warheads has slowed after a rapid buildup since 2020, with fewer new weapons added to its arsenal. But China’s program continues to expand, focusing on lower-yield nuclear weapons and early counterstrike capabilities, and remains on track to field 1,000 warheads by the end of the decade.
The China Military Power Report — an annual unclassified Pentagon assessment of Beijing’s capabilities delivered to Congress — departs from the language of recent editions that emphasized the looming challenge of China’s military buildup, instead highlighting President Donald Trump’s efforts to stabilize ties with the world’s fastest-growing military power.
Beijing’s total nuclear warhead arsenal likely remained in the low 600s, the report says, similar to last year’s figures, “reflecting a slower rate of production” — down from the estimated 100 additional warheads a year since 2020. The report notes that the People’s Liberation Army is, however, continuing “its massive nuclear expansion,” and showing “no appetite” for arms control discussions.
The report strikes an overall more conciliatory tone on Beijing’s military ambitions. Where last year’s assessment described Beijing as the “pacing challenge” for the U.S. military — a term also used during Trump’s first administration, this year’s report describes China’s rapidly expanding military as a “logical” result of the country growing more wealthy and powerful.
“President Trump seeks a stable peace, fair trade, and respectful relations with China, and the Department of War will ensure that he is able to achieve these objectives,” it reads.
Despite the shift in tone, the report lays out mounting challenges posed by Beijing’s ambitions to assert control over Taiwan and expand a conventional missile force that is increasingly approaching U.S. capabilities.
Analysts say it highlights the challenges facing the Trump administration in balancing efforts to prioritize U.S. interests in trade while projecting military dominance in the Indo-Pacific.
“There’s an inherent contradiction running through the report: It lays bare the scale of China’s military expansion and Taiwan ambitions while simultaneously suggesting the relationship is stabilizing. Those two stories can’t be reconciled — no matter how hard the administration tries to preserve the trade truce,” said Craig Singleton, senior China fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank.
The annual military assessment comes as Trump prepares to travel to Beijing next year, following a trade détente reached with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea that eased tensions over Trump’s aggressive tariff program and Beijing’s weaponization of its rare-earth monopoly.
The report comes as the White House is signaling different priorities on China. The recently released National Security Strategy — a document outlining the administration’s defense priorities — frames China’s challenge more in economic terms while shifting the U.S. focus to threats in the Western Hemisphere.
Even as tensions have eased since the South Korea meeting, national security frictions continue to flare up between the two countries. On Monday, Beijing reacted angrily to the U.S. seizure of a Venezuelan oil tanker en route to China amid escalating tensions between Washington and Caracas. Chinese officials also strongly condemned the approval of a record $11 billion U.S. weapons package for Taiwan last week.
The Pentagon report notes that Beijing is ramping up efforts to “coerce” Taiwan to unify with China through a campaign of military patrols — including a twofold increase in incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone between 2023 and 2025 — and using increasingly aggressive political rhetoric as part of a campaign to undermine the island’s independent rule.
China’s embassy in Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Despite producing fewer nuclear warheads, China’s broader nuclear program has expanded in other ways, including the development of more versatile low-yield weapons and upgrades to its counterstrike systems, the report notes. China has likely loaded more than 100 intercontinental ballistic missiles into desert silos, advancing capabilities for long-range strikes closer to U.S. territories.
At over 600 nuclear warheads, China’s arsenal remains far smaller than U.S. stockpile of around 3,700, but the report says upgrades in China’s program likely have enhanced its ability to rapidly retaliate. “This reliance on the strategic level of deterrence — likely nuclear weapons, but also cyber and space capabilities — indicates the growing confidence and comfort the PLA has with conventional escalation,” it said.
The significance of China’s expanding arsenal has been thrown into sharper relief amid rising global tensions over nuclear weapons. Russia has stepped up nuclear intimidation since its invasion of Ukraine, while Trump has ordered the United States to resume nuclear testing “immediately,” accusing Moscow and Beijing of skirting a three-decade moratorium.
Analysts said a slowdown in the production of nuclear weapons could also point to changes in China’s threat perception. “Beijing may currently perceive a reduced existential threat from the United States and, accordingly, less urgency to pursue nuclear expansion at maximum speed than during the peak of U.S.-China hostility around 2021,” said Tong Zhao, a nuclear specialist and senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
He added that China’s 2023 overhaul of the PLA Rocket Force following a corruption scandal could mean the country is working to “prioritize internal reform and more sustainable, effective long-term growth.”
Elsewhere, the Pentagon report notes China’s advance of military programs in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, quantum technology, and advanced semiconductors — partly through acquisitions of U.S. technology. While restrictions on high-end processors have constrained China’s AI industry, illicit smuggling networks have likely allowed companies such as Deepseek and Huawei to obtain U.S. semiconductors for projects with potential military significance.
The Trump administration has sought to balance U.S. security and trade with Beijing — maintaining restrictions on some high-end chips while, earlier this month, lifting controls to allow approved customers in China access to advanced Nvidia H200 semiconductors.
“The Pentagon is warning that China already treats advanced accelerators as a strategic asset — using intermediaries and shell networks to evade controls — so the White House’s desire to reopen the export spigot is strategically backward,” Singleton said. “It turns an enforcement problem into a policy choice that strengthens exactly the capability the report flags as a growing threat.”
BEIRUT — For the first time in three years, the Gaza Strip’s tiny Christian community is celebrating Christmas without the immediate threat of war.
A ceasefire has brought the enclave a measure of calm, and over the past few weeks, Christians there have embraced the holiday spirit, lighting up trees and passing out sweets.
On Sunday, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, led a Christmas Eve Mass at Holy Family Church in Gaza City, where he baptized the newest member of the community, a baby named Marco Nader Habshi.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa (second from left), the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, leads a Mass ahead of Christmas celebrations at Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City on Sunday.
“It will not be full of joy, but it is an attempt to renew life,” Elias al-Jilda, 59, a prominent member of Gaza’s Orthodox population, said of this season’s holiday celebration. He said he remembers the days when Christmas in Gaza meant citywide festivities, with Muslims and Christians coming together. “It was a special occasion,” he added, “an opportunity for us to breathe.”
But while the holidays have long brought a sense of relief, the Christian community in Gaza — one of the world’s oldest — was already in decline. Now, with the devastating conflict between Hamas and Israel, the population has further diminished, and church leaders warn that postwar deprivation could push more people to leave.
Like most Palestinians in Gaza, Christians’ “houses were destroyed, their businesses were destroyed, their living conditions are difficult,” said Archbishop Atallah Hanna, head of the Sebastia diocese of the Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem.
According to Hanna and Jilda, who serves on the council of the Arab Orthodox Church in Gaza, the territory’s total Christian population has fallen from about 1,000 members before the war to almost half of that today. It’s a drop that reflects, in part, a long-term trend of Christian emigration from the Palestinian territories — only in Gaza, the number of Christians is so small that any loss feels like a substantial blow.
At the same time, Israel’s military actions in Gaza have accelerated Christian flight from the enclave. Residents began leaving at a steady clip, either with help from family members abroad or in medical evacuations. Jilda described the departures as “an attempt to survive,” while those who stayed in Gaza “survived by what can only be described as a miracle,” he said.
At least 44 Palestinian Christians have been killed in the conflict, according to a committee overseen by the Palestinian government. Some were killed in Israeli sniper or artillery attacks that hit Gazan churches, the committee said, while others died of illness, injury, or malnutrition because of a lack of food or medical care.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military campaign, which began after the Hamas-led attacks on Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says a majority of the dead are women and children. Around 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas assault, and some 250 others were taken into Gaza as hostages.
Nearly all of Gaza’s 2.1 million residents have been displaced, the United Nations says, and wide swaths of the enclave, including houses, farmland, and infrastructure, are destroyed.
The fighting forced Gaza’s Christians — the majority of whom are Greek Orthodox or Catholic — to take refuge in its two main churches. Most sheltered in Holy Family Church in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City. The church, which is Catholic, has much more space for accommodating the displaced. Others huddled about 1.5 miles away in the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Porphyrius, established in the year 425.
“There is an assumption that Gaza has no Christian population, or no Christian history,” said Yousef AlKhouri, a Gaza native and dean at Bethlehem Bible College in the West Bank. “And that’s not true.”
He said that Gaza, despite its size, has produced many Christian theologians, politicians and scholars over the years. Jesus, Mary and Joseph are also believed to have passed through the territory on their way to Egypt, AlKhouri said — a story that, according to him, gave Holy Family Church its name.
For Jilda and his family, Holy Family Church served as a sanctuary after their home in Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa neighborhood was destroyed one month into the war. After the ceasefire began, they moved into a rental home in the city but are still trying to furnish it.
Today, most of the region’s Palestinian Christians are still sheltering at the churches, as reconstruction has yet to begin and a rainy winter season has inundated the tents in which displaced residents live.
Like Jilda, AlKhouri, who grew up in Gaza in the 1990s, said he remembers a time when Christian life therewas not just about survival. “The celebrations of Christian and Muslim festivals were shared,” he said, adding that there was always a sense of solidarity among “Palestinian Christians and Muslims in Gaza: going to school together, playing together, going to the YMCA.”
But over time, as the peace process with Israel collapsed and hopes for a Palestinian state dimmed, the conflict began tearing at the community. In Gaza, Hamas and its secular rival, Fatah, fought a brief but bloody civil war that saw the Islamists take control. Since then, Christmas celebrations have been largely private and subdued.
Still, as Pizzaballa held a high-profile Mass this week, he urged Christians in Gaza to hold on.
“We are called not only to survive, but to rebuild life. We must bring the spirit of Christmas — the spirit of light, tenderness and love. It may seem impossible,” he said, “but after two years of terrible war, we are still here.”
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presented journalists a new version of a peace plan Wednesday that suggests he is open to withdrawing troops from eastern Ukraine to create a demilitarized zone if Russia agrees to do the same as part of a settlement to end the war.
The suggestions marks Zelensky’s first inch toward any sort of compromise on the issue of territory in the eastern Donbas region, which Russia has demanded full control of despite failing to take several major cities militarily. The issue of territory remains one of the most contentious in discussions, with Ukraine arguing that giving up its land will only embolden Russia to attack again.
The 20-point draft Zelensky publicized Wednesday is far from final and has not been agreed to by Russia, which will probably oppose several major points, including the demand for both sides to withdraw their forces from Ukraine’s east.
The document is the latest iteration of a proposal to end the war after weeks of difficult negotiations following a U.S. threat last month to cut off all support for Ukraine unless the country signed on to a 28-point version that made major concessions to Russia.
That warning triggered a diplomatic frenzy, including many meetings between a Ukrainian delegation and President Donald Trump’s negotiators, including special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The latest plan makes clear that Ukraine continues to oppose the idea that it would be forced to withdraw its troops from its east but would consider doing so if Russia did the same. The goal would be to create a free economic zone that is not controlled by either military, Zelensky said.
Any such agreement, however, would require a national referendum, which would be difficult to organize without a ceasefire in place. It would also require Russia agreeing to this and other points in the document, which remains unlikely.
The establishment of a free economic zone would require significant work to determine who would control the territory, including potentially foreign peacekeepers. Russia has previously opposed the idea that foreign troops be stationed in Ukraine and the two sides will likely find it difficult to agree which countries would contribute troops to such a mission.
Such an arrangement was suggested by the United States, which has repeatedly raised various suggestions that would prioritize business after the war. Zelensky previously said that if Ukrainian forces were to withdraw from any territory, it would only be logical for Russian forces to withdraw the same amount. He had also cast skepticism on how to secure such a zone, citing potential vulnerabilities to Russian infiltration.
Russia has previously stated that even if it did withdraw its military from some regions, it would expect to still control the area with police and national guard units.
Zelensky also said Wednesday that the current draft includes a peacetime Ukrainian military of 800,000 troops. The initial version would have limited the size to 600,000. Ukraine has repeatedly stated that its best security guarantee is its own armed forces.
The draft also includes references to security guarantees that would amount to similar protections as NATO’s Article 5, which sees an attack on one member as an attack on all. An earlier draft of the plan had barred Ukraine from becoming part of NATO, which was deemed unacceptable to Ukrainians, who have put joining the alliance into their constitution.
Zelensky has emphasized in recent remarks that no one can view Ukraine as an obstacle to the peace process, but any plan cannot condemn future generations of Ukrainians to war with Russia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not respond to specific points in the plan Wednesday but told journalists that Russia’s main demands “are well known to our colleagues in the U.S.”
Russia intends “to formulate our further position and continue our contacts in the very near future through the existing channels that are currently working.”
Russia has shown little sign it is interested in finding a real settlement to the war. Ukraine had requested a Christmas truce, which Russia declined. Russia has continued to aggressively bomb Ukraine in recent days, targeting the energy grid and triggering more widespread blackouts across the country. Russia’s early-morning attack on Tuesday killed three people, including a 4-year-old child.
Warnings continue that more bombardment is likely as the energy system is under greater stress responding to the subzero temperatures taking hold across Ukraine.
On Wednesday, meanwhile, a police car exploded in Moscow, killing two police officers in the same spot where a general was killed by a car bomb two days earlier. Ukraine did not claim responsibility for the attacks but Russia has suggested Kyiv could be behind the operations.
The Russian Investigative Committee said in a statement that two traffic police officers saw a suspicious individual near a police car. As they approached to detain him, an explosive device detonated.
Two prominent Russian military bloggers pointed fingers at Ukrainian and European special services, blaming them for the attack and attempting to destabilize Russia from within.
“I believe that the Ukrainian (British, and U.S.) intelligence services are trying to open a second (subversive) front inside Russia,” state media military correspondent Alexander Sladkov wrote on his Telegram blog.
Sladkov also questions whether the CCTV surveillance system bolstered in Moscow in recent years would help identify those responsible for the attack, and noted that if the investigation results are not released this week, it will be a “demonstration of weakness.”
Another war reporter, Alexander Kots, wrote that the explosion “clearly bears the mocking signature” of special services from Ukraine and Britain.
“This is a typical British anti-crisis: sow panic among the population, destabilize it from within, create a sense of insecurity, undermine the authority of the authorities and the security services, provoke public discontent with the special military operation, and provoke rallies calling for its swift end,” Kots wrote.
