Gaza’s Health Ministry said Sunday that Israeli forces killed at least 51 Palestinians and wounded 164 in the previous 24-hour period as relentless Israeli strikes continued across the Strip.
Dozens of Palestinians were killed by an Israeli strike on a house sheltering displaced Palestinians in Jabalia, which has been under a total siege since early October as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign being conducted by the Israeli military. According to Al Jazeera, at least 33 Palestinians, including 13 children, were reported killed in the strike on Jabalia.
A day earlier, Reuters reported that a strike hit al-Mawasi, a coastal area that the Israeli military has designated a so-called “safe zone,” but it has come under repeated attack. The strike, which hit al-Mawasi on Friday, killed children as they were preparing to play soccer.
“The rocket struck them. There were no wanted or targeted people there and there was nobody else in the street. Just the children who were killed yesterday,” Mohammed Zanoun, a relative of the dead children, told Reuters.
The UN’s Human Rights Office said Friday that nearly 70% of the Palestinian fatalities it has confirmed were women and children. The youngest victim whose death was verified was one day old, and the oldest was a 97-year-old woman. Out of children under 18, those aged 5 to 9 represent the single biggest age category.
So far, the UN’s Human Rights Office has verified 8,119 victims, which is far lower than the number released by Gaza’s Health Ministry. “The numbers are, of course, massive compared to previous years, so we do need time to catch up and verify,” said Ajith Sunghay, head of the Human Rights Office for the occupied Palestinian Territory. Sunghay added that he expects the verified death toll to match the Palestinian numbers once the UN is caught up.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said Sunday that the latest violence brought its death toll since October 7, 2023, to 43,603 and the number of wounded to 102,929. The ministry only counts bodies brought to hospitals and morgues. “There are still a number of victims under the rubble and on the streets, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them,” the ministry said.
A group of American healthcare workers who volunteered in Gaza have estimated the US-backed Israeli bombing campaign and siege has killed at least 118,908 Palestinians, including over 60,000 who have starved to death.