No Respite as Gaza Death Toll in Israeli Attacks Crosses 8,005
The total death toll in Gaza crossed yet another grim mark as 8,005 people were now confirmed killed in Israeli attacks since Oct. 7, the Health Ministry reported Sunday.
The number includes at least 3,342 children, 2,062 women, and 460 elderly, the ministry in a statement said.
Earlier Sunday, Gaza media office said around 10,000 Palestinians were either killed or trapped under rubble since start of Israeli attacks.
Israel carried out a brutal air attack campaign on besieged Gaza since the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday announced the country was expanding its ground operations to move into the next phase of a “long and difficult” conflict.
Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are grappling with shortages of food, water, fuel, and medicine due to Israel’s blockade of the enclave. Only a few aid trucks have crossed into Gaza since the opening of the Rafah crossing point last weekend.
U.N. chief Antonio Guterres, speaking in Kathmandu, Nepal on Sunday, reiterated his appeal for an “immediate humanitarian cease-fire, the unconditional release of all hostages, and the delivery of sustained humanitarian relief at a scale that meets the needs of the people of Gaza.”
3 killed in West Bank
Meanwhile, at least three Palestinians were killed in growing Israeli violence across the occupied West Bank on Sunday, the Palestinian health ministry said.
More than 110 Palestinians and one Israeli have so far been killed in the West Bank since Oct. 7.
The health ministry said three people aged 29 to 31 were shot dead by Israeli forces at dawn, with the incidents taking place in Beit Rima, northwest of Ramallah, in Nablus’s Askar refugee camp and in Tubas, a town further north.
The ministry did not provide further details.
In recent months there has also been a rise in Israeli settler violence against Palestinians.
Earlier Saturday, a 40-year-old Palestinian who was harvesting his olives was killed by a settler in the village of Sawiya near Nablus, the Health Ministry said.
Settlers claimed he was killed as they acted in self-defense after a clash erupted between Palestinians and members of an Israeli community nearby.
Source: Daily Sabah