The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip yesterday said that the death toll in the territory has surpassed 15,200 and that 70 percent of those killed were women and children.
The previous toll given by the ministry was more than 13,300 dead.
Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra did not explain the sharp jump.
Photo: AFP
The ministry had only been able to provide sporadic updates since Nov. 11, amid problems with connectivity and major war-related disruptions in hospital operations. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
More than 40,000 people have been wounded, al-Qidra said.
Israel intensified a renewed offensive that followed a week-long truce with Hamas, giving rise to fresh concerns about civilian casualties, even as the US urged ally Israel to do everything possible to protect civilians.
“This is going to be very important going forward,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday after meetings with Arab foreign ministers in Dubai, wrapping up his third Middle East tour since the war started. “It’s something we’re going to be looking at very closely.”
Many of Israel’s attacks yesterday were focused on the Khan Younis area in southern Gaza, where the military said it had struck more than 50 Hamas targets with airstrikes, tank fire and its navy.
The military dropped leaflets the day before warning residents to leave, but, as of late Friday, there had been no reports of large numbers of people leaving, the UN said.
“There is no place to go,” said Emad Hajar, who fled with his wife and three children from the northern town of Beit Lahia a month ago to seek refuge in Khan Younis. “They expelled us from the north, and now they are pushing us to leave the south.”
Israel’s military said it also carried out strikes in the north, and hit more than 400 targets across the Gaza Strip.
About 2 million people — almost Gaza’s entire population — are crammed into the territory’s south, where Israel urged people to relocate at the war’s start and has since vowed to extend its ground assault. Unable to go into north Gaza or neighboring Egypt, their only escape is to move around within the 220km2 area.
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