Gaza’s Health Ministry said Monday that Israeli forces killed at least 48 Palestinians in Gaza, bringing the recorded death toll to 40,786.
“Israeli forces killed 48 people and injured 70 others in three ‘massacres’ of families in the last 24 hours,” the ministry said, according to Turkey’s Anadolu Agency. “Many people are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them.”
The ministry said that the 70 Palestinians who were injured bring the total number of wounded since October 7 to 94,224.
Israeli strikes were reported across the Gaza Strip, including in Gaza City, where seven Palestinians were killed in two separate airstrikes. Two Palestinians, including a child, were reported killed in the Nuiserat camp in central Gaza.
According to Reuters, the armed wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad said they confronted Israeli soldiers in northern, central, and southern areas of Gaza with anti-tank rockets and mortar fire.
The true death toll in Gaza is unclear since the Health Ministry’s numbers don’t include the 10,000 people who are missing and presumed dead under the rubble. It’s also unclear how many Palestinians have died due to indirect causes.
A letter written by a group of experts recently published in the British medical journal The Lancet estimated the total number of deaths in Gaza, including those killed by the Israeli military and indirect causes, could reach 186,000. They reached the numbers by using the death toll from the end of June, which was 37,396.
A group of American doctors and nurses who volunteered in Gaza wrote a letter to President Biden last month, and they estimated that the actual death toll has already exceeded 92,000, or 4.2% of the population. The American medical professionals also detailed the horrific violence being committed by Israeli soldiers against children.