Gaza war death toll at 26,083
AFP :
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Friday at least 26,083 people have been killed in the war between the militant group and Israel.
The latest toll includes 183 fatalities over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, while 64,487 people have been wounded in Gaza since the war erupted on October 7. “Many people are still under the rubble and rescuers cannot reach them,” the ministry added.
At least 183 people have been killed and 377 wounded throughout the enclave in 24 hours, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
ICJ has ordered Israel to take steps to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza but stopped short of ordering a ceasefire.
Refugee camps and public facilities across Khan Younis relentlessly targeted by Israeli artillery shelling as snipers shoot at Palestinians leaving al-Amal Hospital.
At least 26,083 people have been killed and 64,487 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from the October 7 Hamas attacks stands at 1,139.
In early January, Israel announced that it was withdrawing some of its forces from northern Gaza after “dismantling” Hamas’s military activities in the region.
Three months had passed since the start of its war on Gaza, more than 20,000 Palestinians had been killed and Israel had increasingly turned its attention to central and southern Gaza, here it has surrounded and targeted the city of Khan Younis in particular.
But on January 16, Hamas launched 25 rockets from the northern Gaza strip at the southern Israeli city of Netivot. While no civilians were killed, the attack punched holes in the Israeli claim that it was on its way to destroying Hamas, even after more than 100 days of war.
Since Hamas’s deadly attack on Israeli communities and military outposts on October 7, in which 1,139 people were killed, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that it wants to “eradicate” the Palestinian armed group.
At the time, many analysts warned that destroying the group was an unrealistic aim that would only compound the costs imposed on Gaza’s civilian population. Now, the fresh signs of Hamas regaining the ability to target Israel from northern Gaza further bolster those predictions.
“I think [the rocket attacks] sends a message to Israelis at large that their goal at eradicating Hamas is failing,” said Omar H Rahman, an expert on Israel-Palestine with the Middle East Council on Global Affairs think tank.
“If you can still fire rockets and if you can still attack troops – in the north of all places where Israel has laid siege for 112 days – then [the war aim of destroying Hamas] is failing,” he told Al Jazeera.
Hundreds of Israeli protesters have blocked some humanitarian aid trucks from entering Gaza for a third day. Demonstrators, including families of hostages still held in Gaza, waved Israeli flags at a key crossing and chanted against “aiding the enemy”.
The protesters say they are demanding no aid for Gaza until all of the hostages are released.
This comes despite a US demand that aid to civilians in Gaza be allowed to enter “without interruption”.
For a third consecutive day, the protesters descended on the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza to try to block humanitarian aid from entering the enclave.
