Hamas says Gaza deaths top 25,000 as Israel pushes offensive
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry on Sunday said the death toll in the wartorn Palestinian territory breached 25,000 as Israel pushed its southward offensive and renewed bombardment in the north.
Israel is pressing its push against Hamas in southern Gaza as it seeks to destroy the Islamist militant group responsible for the deadliest attack in the country’s history.
In early January, Israel’s military said the Hamas command structure in northern Gaza had been dismantled, leaving only isolated fighters.
But witnesses told AFP Israeli boats were bombarding Gaza City and other areas in the north early Sunday. Hamas has also reported heavy combat in the north.
“Dozens are still under the rubble,” the Hamas government’s media office said, adding that the dead and injured “could not be transferred to hospitals due to the continued artillery shelling on... Khan Yunis and the Tal alHawa area in Gaza City and the north”.
The Israeli army said it “eliminated a number of terrorists” in the main southern city of Khan Yunis and killed 15 militants in northern Gaza over the past day.
Israel’ s relentless bombardment and ground offensive have killed at least 25,105 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Militants also seized about 250 hostages during the October attacks.
Israel says around 132 remain in Gaza, of whom at least 27 captives are believed to have been killed, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
In a briefing on Saturday evening, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said troops had found a tunnel in Khan Yunis where some hostages had previously been kept.
Among the evidence of their presence were paintings, including by a five-year-old captive, he said.
“About 20 hostages” had been held there at different times “in difficult conditions without daylight... with little oxygen and terrible humidity”.
Soldiers entered the tunnel and fought a battle with militants in which “the terrorists were eliminated”, Hagari said.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says about 1.7 million people have been displaced in Gaza, with about one million crowded into the Rafah area.
UN agencies have warned better aid access is needed urgently as famine and disease loom.
Diplomatic efforts have sought to secure scaled-up aid deliveries for Gaza and a truce, after a week-long cessation of hostilities in November saw Hamas release dozens of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by