DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Health officials in the Gaza Strip say the death toll from the 14-month war between Israel and Hamas militants has exceeded 45,000 people.
Gaza's health ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but said more than half of the fatalities were women and children. The Israeli military says it has killed more than 17,000 militants without providing evidence.
According to the Ministry of Health, 45,028 people have been killed and 106,962 injured since the war began in October 2023. The actual number is higher because thousands of bodies are still buried under rubble or in areas where paramedics cannot access. The recent war was by far the deadliest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas. The death toll now stands at around 2% of Gaza's total pre-war population, which was around 2.3 million people.
Israel claims Hamas is responsible for the civilian death toll because it operates from civilian areas in the densely populated Gaza Strip. Human rights groups and Palestinians say Israel has failed to take sufficient precautions to prevent civilian deaths.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping another 250. About 100 hostages remain in the Gaza Strip, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. Most of the others were released as part of a ceasefire last year.
This is a recent update. AP's earlier story follows below.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli attack killed at least 10 people, including a family of four, in Gaza City overnight, Palestinian medics said Monday, as Israel continues its 14-month war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip .
According to the Health Ministry's emergency services, the strike hit a house in the eastern Shijaiyah district of Gaza City late Sunday. Rescuers recovered the bodies of ten people from under the rubble, including two parents and their two children, it said.
The attacks were part of Israel's war in Gaza, which broke out on October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants stormed from Gaza into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage. Most of the hostages were released during a temporary ceasefire last year, but about 100 remain in Gaza, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.
According to Gaza's Health Ministry, Israel responded with heavy bombing and a ground attack on the Palestinian enclave, killing nearly 45,000 Palestinians. The ministry's tally does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, but says the dead included more than women and children.
Another attack on a school on Sunday in the southern city of Khan Younis killed at least 13 people, including six children and two women, according to Nasser Hospital, where the bodies were taken. The hospital initially reported that 16 people were killed in the strike, but later revised the death toll because the three other bodies were from a separate strike in which a house was hit.
The Israeli military said it “carried out a precise attack on Hamas terrorists operating in a command and control center at a compound” that had served as a school in Khan Younis. No evidence was presented.
Mourners gathered in the Nuseirat urban refugee camp in central Gaza for the funeral of a Palestinian journalist working for the Qatar-based television channel Al Jazeera, who was killed on Sunday during a strike at a Gaza Civil Defense point. They carried his body across the street from the hospital, his blue bulletproof vest resting on top.
According to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the strike also killed three Civil Defense employees, including the agency's local head. Civil Defense is Gaza's main rescue organization and reports to the Hamas-led government.
Al Jazeera said 39-year-old Ahmad Baker Al-Louh was reporting on rescue operations of a family injured in an earlier bombing when he was killed.
The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants “operating from a command and control center housed in the offices of the 'Civil Defense' organization in Nuseirat.” The journalist was accused of being a member of Islamic Jihad, which his colleagues in Gaza denied.
Gaza Civil Defense also rejected claims that militants had operated from the site.
“We were stunned by the Israeli declaration of occupation,” Mahmoud al-Lawh, the journalist’s cousin, told The Associated Press. “These claims are lies and misleading to cover up this crime.”
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Magdy reported from Cairo
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