Palestinian death toll nears 32,800 amid continued Israeli attacks on Gaza
Gaza City, Palestine - At least 32,782 Palestinians have been killed and 75,298 injured in Israel’s ongoing offensive on the Gaza Strip since last October 7, the Health Ministry in the besieged enclave said on Sunday.
A ministry statement said Israeli attacks in the last 24 hours alone left 77 people dead and 108 others injured.
“Many people are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” the ministry said.
Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an October 7 cross-border attack by Hamas which killed some 1,200 people.
The Israeli war has pushed 85 per cent of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which asked Israel to do more to prevent famine in Gaza.
Airstrike on displaced people
At least four Palestinians were killed and 16 injured on Sunday in an Israeli airstrike on a tent for displaced people on the grounds of a Gaza hospital, according to official Palestinian news agency
Wafa. Several journalists were among those injured in the attack, which struck a tent in the courtyard of Al-aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza city of Deir al-balah, Wafa said, citing medical sources.
“The Israeli occupation committed a new massacre inside a hospital that provides medical service for displaced people and citizens,” Gaza’s government media office said in a statement, referring to several Israeli attacks over the last several months that hit hospitals.
It held the US administration, Israel, and the international community ‘fully responsible for this crime’.
Bombing in Khan Younis
At least 13 Palestinians were killed and many others injured as Israel bombed Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday.
“At least 13 Palestinian citizens were killed over the last 24 hours in a series of Israeli airstrikes and artillery bombardments in various areas of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip,” the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. It reported that 11 people were killed and dozens wounded as Israeli forces targeted civilians in the town of Bani Suheila, east of Khan Yunis.
“Among the casualties were a woman and her daughter who were killed in an Israeli artillery shelling targeting the Majedah family’s home in the Al-mawasi area, west of Khan Yunis,” it added.
“An elderly civilian succumbed to his injuries after his home was targeted by Israeli shelling near the Wadi Gaza area in central Gaza, in a separate incident,” according to the report.
13-day raid on Al-shifa
Meanwhile, on Saturday, the government media office reported that Israeli forces killed more than 400 Palestinians and demolished over 1,050 homes
At least four Palestinians were killed and 16 injured on Sunday in an Israeli airstrike on a tent for displaced people on the grounds of a Gaza hospital, according to official Palestinian news agency Wafa
during a 13-day raid on the AlShifa Hospital in Gaza City.
The Gaza-based government Media Office said Israeli forces detained and tortured hundreds of patients, displaced individuals and health care workers in and around the hospital.
A statement highlighted the dire situation of 107 patients and 60 health care workers trapped in the hospital under inhumane conditions without water, medicine, food or electricity.
It accused Israel of obstructing attempts by international organizations to evacuate the patients, putting their lives at risk.