The Palestinian death toll from Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip has reached 2,400, with the number of Palestinians killed in Israeli air attacks revised to 2,329, and the number of wounded to 9,042.
This death toll surpasses that of the 2014 Israel-Palestinian conflict, which lasted six weeks and resulted in 74 Israeli deaths.
The outbreak of violence has also affected the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where 56 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire since last week. A Palestinian man was killed by Israeli soldiers in the northern West Bank, marking the latest casualty.
The recent violence began on October 7 when Israeli forces launched an indiscriminate air assault on the Gaza Strip in response to Hamas’ surprise incursion of neighbouring Israeli territories.
Medics in Gaza warned that thousands could die as hospitals filled with wounded people run low on fuel and basic supplies under Israel’s “complete siege.” The UN warns that hospitals The generator fuel supply is predicted to run out within two days, posing a significant risk to thousands of patients.
Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis is filled with wounded patients, mainly children under 3, and fuel is expected to run out by Monday, potentially shutting down the entire health system. Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza did not evacuate despite Israeli orders.
There are seven newborns in the ICU hooked up to ventilators, and patients keep arriving with severed limbs, severe burns, and other life-threatening injuries.
Gaza is already in a humanitarian crisis due to a growing shortage of water and medical supplies caused by the Israeli siege. With some bakeries closing, residents are unable to buy bread and many rely on brackish wells. Israel has ordered over 1 million Palestinians, almost half the territory’s population, to move south.
The UN and aid groups warn that the mass exodus of Gazans and Israel’s complete siege will cause immense human suffering, with the World Health Organization estimating the evacuation could be a death sentence.
The military has not targeted a single route south between 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., urging Palestinians to leave the north en masse. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees reports that around 1 million people have been displaced in Gaza in a single week.
