GAZA: The health ministry in the besieged Gaza Strip has reported that the at least 32,845 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed since October 7 amid the ongoing Israeli bombardment of Gaza. The grim figure includes 63 deaths recorded in the past 24 hours alone, with a total of 75,392 persons wounded during the more than five months of bombing campaign.
The latest update on casualties comes as the Israeli military withdrew from Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, following a two-week operation characterized by intense fighting. According to a statement from Gaza’s Civil Defence agency, approximately 300 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in and around the hospital throughout the duration of the operation.
The situation in Gaza remains dire, with civilian infrastructure decimated and thousands of families displaced amid the relentless airstrikes and artillery barrages.
Meanwhile, Chief of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said an Israeli airstrike on a hospital in Gaza killed four people and injured 17.
The UN official in a post on X, formerly Twitter, said a WHO team was on a mission at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza, when a tent camp situation in the complex of the medical facility was hit by an Israeli airstrike.
The strike at Al-Aqsa hospital was seen by a World Health Organization team sent there to evaluate needs and to collect incubators for the north of Gaza, said Tedros. Israel’s military has denied that the hospital was targeted in the strike. Tedros provided no details of the victims, but said: “WHO staff are all accounted for.”
Tedros renewed his call for patients, aid workers and health professionals to be protected during the war and demanded attacks on hospitals to stop. He said that the ongoing attacks on hospitals must come to an end and international humanitarian law must be respected.
Tedros asked all parties to the conflict to respect and comply with the UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. According to the WHO, currently there are ten hospitals operational in Gaza at a minimum level, as compared to 36 before the beginning of the war.
