Gaza death toll nears 18,000 amid Israeli attacks
News Desk :
About 18,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli bombardment since October 7. The revised death toll in Israel stands at 1,147. 49,229 have been injured.
Israel’s deadly air raids in central and northern Gaza continue on Monday morning with ground fighting reported in southern part of the Strip, reports Al Jazeera.
A recent study conducted by Israel has shown that of them, a whopping 60% were civilians.
This study comes at a time, when Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel has been facing severe heat from international leaders for the civilian death caused by the Israeli airstrikes and ground offensive in the name of ‘eliminating’ Hamas fighters.
The study conducted by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, came as Israeli forces fought to consolidate their control of northern Gaza, also bombing the Shejaiya district of Gaza City, while also conducting airstrikes on Rafah, a town on the southern border with Egypt where the Israeli army has told people in Gaza to take shelter.
The analysis, conducted by Yagil Levy, a sociology professor at the Open University of Israel and published by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, found that in the first three weeks of Operation Swords of Iron, the total death toll stood at 6,747 – 4,594 of whom were civilians.
A special UN General Assembly session to be held on Tuesday comes after Egypt and Mauritania invoked resolution 377, “Uniting for Peace”.
UN forces in Lebanon have warned of a “wider conflict” as Israel and Hezbollah escalate air raids and drone attacks.
It marks a roughly 20 per cent increase in civilian deaths when compared to three other Israeli bombing campaigns that took place in 2012, 2021 and 2022.
In all of those campaigns the civilian death toll stood at around 40 per cent. Israel’s ‘Shield and Arrow’ campaign, which took place in May 2023, registered a slightly lower figure for civilian deaths, at 33 per cent.
The analysis was released as heavy fighting raged throughout the Gaza Strip on Sunday.
Those on the ground say Israeli forces are coming up against heavy armed resistance – even in the north of the strip, where troops have been conducting operations for over six weeks.
In the Gaza City neighborhood of Shijaiyah, as well as the Jabaliya refugee camp, gun battles continued into Sunday, according to residents.
The refugee camp is a dense urban area of housing, making operations particularly difficult for the invading force.
