Palestinians in the war-torn Gaza Strip welcomed the new year of 2025 with hopes that the latest round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict will end, the siege will be lifted, and security and peace will prevail.
As celebrations for 2025 began, the people of Gaza continued to endure the ravages of the conflict that has been ongoing for over a year.
The latest round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict in Gaza has resulted in over 45,500 deaths and more than 108,300 injuries, many of them women and children. The majority of Palestinians have been forced to flee from their devastated homes.
At the Church of Saint Porphyrius in the Gaza City, dozens of Christians who seek refuge in the church gathered on the Christmas Eve, surrounded by an atmosphere of sorrow.
The evening's activities were confined to prayers and pleas for an end to the war that has lasted 15 months.
The familiar signs of joy, such as decorative lights and the grand Christmas tree that the city has been accustomed to for decades, were absent.
"We are mostly displaced members of the Christian community. We hope that the war will end, and we are waiting to hear the good news that the aggression against us will stop," said Elias al-Jaldeh, one of the Christians.
"When I think of 2025, it's hard to think of many positive things but we hope for the better because we made the same exact wish in 2024 and unfortunately and tragically none of this happened and we went through another year of hardship. It's tragedy and much of the agony continues to happen. My only hope and my only wish is that 2025 is going to be different. Please, with one hope, if I am asking for one thing, it will be a ceasefire," said Hani Mahmoud, an Al Jazeera correspondent.
Reham Awad has been volunteering to visit the tents of the displaced, providing care for those injured in the relentless Israeli bombings, as hospitals ran out of room and can no longer admit patients.
"My first wish is for the war to end so that the massacres and injuries to children that we see every day stop. My second wish is for a single location for medical equipment so that we can treat more people without moving between tents. This will save a great deal of time and effort," she said.
Gazans express hope for peace as new year approaches
Former officials and analysts in Egypt have hailed the significant message in Chinese President Xi Jinping's New Year speech and highlighted how China's development impacts not only itself, but the whole world.
In the address broadcast on New Year's Eve on Tuesday, Xi stressed the importance of high-quality development and safeguarding people's livelihoods, and underscored China's vision to promote global governance reform and deepen solidarity and cooperation among the Global South.
Xi also said China's economy has rebounded and is on an upward trajectory, while noting the need to transform old growth drivers into new ones.
"The New Year's speech by the Chinese President tackled many important issues, among which is the Chinese economic growth during 2024. China aims at increasing that growth rate in the new year, this is a very important directive that will affect China's public policy in the coming period," said Mohamed Amin, editor-in-chief of the Cairo-based political magazine October.
Meanwhile, Ali el-Hefny, a former Egyptian ambassador to China who is now vice president of the Egypt-China Friendship Association, highlighted how China has set an example for the developing world, and pointed to its strong cooperation with Africa, including in the development of many major infrastructure projects. "China also contributes a lot as far as its participation as one of the major countries worldwide in peacekeeping efforts in the continent of Africa. So in fact, the internal policies in China are a wonderful example for us in Africa, for our economies, for our countries, for our governments, and for the countries in the Global South," he said.
"With the BRICS and other forums, we need the role and contribution of China. China renders a lot to African as a continent and the African countries, and the African people. I've seen it with the infrastructure that was provided with the Chinese expertise and accumulated experience. Wherever you go in Africa, you will find paved roads, you will find ports where the capacity has been uplifted, [such as] the airports," he said.
Last September, Beijing hosted the summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), bringing together the leaders of over 50 African countries in the Chinese capital, and el-Hefny noted that the cooperation platform will this year mark a milestone anniversary.
"[I would like to] draw attention to the fact that we are celebrating this year a quarter of a century, 25 years, since the establishment in the year 2000 of the African-Chinese cooperation forum. It has lasted for 25 years. We would like to see [the continuation of] such a forum that was very important for the African continent, and it was also important for China," he said.
In the view of Gamal Bayoumi, a former assistant foreign minister, China is playing a very active role in terms of international diplomacy, especially in the United Nations' system.
"As we well know, China is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and it has the right to veto for any decision which we do not like. [But] China has never used the veto in a negative way," he said.
Egyptians hail Xi's New Year speech, highlighting China's global impact
