Death count in Gaza crosses 28,000

AFP :
The health ministry in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Saturday said that at least 28,064 people have been killed in the besieged territory during the war between Palestinian operatives and Israel.

The latest count includes 117 deaths over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, while a total of 67,611 people have been wounded in Gaza since the war broke out on October 7, it added.

Israel is pounding Gaza with massive airstrikes and a ground offensive in retaliation to the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion that killed around 1,160 Israelis. Palestinian resistance groups are still holding some 136 people hostage.

Fighting has mainly been focused in the south of the strip in recent weeks, where the Israeli military alleges Hamas leaders are hiding and may be holding the hostages in an underground network of tunnels.

The Israeli army alleges Hamas’ leader in the Gaza Strip, Yahya al-Sinwar, is hiding with hostages that could serve as a human shield.
After starting in the north, the attack has long centered in Khan Younis in the south of the strip but Israel is planning to extend its operation to the border city of Rafah amid fears of a massacre.

This could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe, the United Nations has warned, saying this would have ripple effects throughout the region.

The city was home to some 200,000 people before the war but now, 1 million Palestinians are sheltering there, having fled fighting throughout the rest of the densely-populated strip. Egypt fears a massive military operation in Rafah could lead to an influx of Palestinians to Egypt’s Sinai peninsula.

The head of the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF, Executive Director Catherine Russell, called on the warring parties to refrain from further military escalation in Rafah, pointing to the risk to the children and families living there.

The consequences for the more than 600,000 young people and their families could otherwise be devastating, she said in a statement, calling for an immediate cease-fire.

“Thousands more could die in the violence or by lack of essential services, and further disruption of humanitarian assistance,” she said. “We need Gaza’s last remaining hospitals, shelters, markets and water systems to stay functional. Without them, hunger and disease will skyrocket, taking more child lives.”