Palestinian death toll from Israeli military offensive in Gaza surpasses 60,000
Most of the Palestinians killed are civilians according to the enclave's health authorities.
The ministry said on Tuesday that the number of injured is 145,870, while thousands remain missing under the rubble of destroyed buildings and areas.
The war began after Gaza's dominant Palestinian militant group Hamas carried out a cross-border attack on southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli authorities.
Israel's subsequent air and ground campaign has leveled entire neighbourhoods in Gaza, displaced most of the population of 2.3 million, and pushed the enclave to the brink of famine, according to the United Nations.
Israel says its operations are aimed at dismantling Hamas' military capabilities and securing the release of hostages.
The military says it has killed thousands of Hamas fighters in Gaza and destroyed hundreds of kilometers of tunnels used by the militants.
The fighting has drawn international condemnation and calls for a ceasefire, with global aid agencies warning of a collapse of essential services and rampant outbreaks of disease.
The latest round of indirect ceasefire talks in Doha between Israel and Hamas broke off last week with no deal in sight.
Much of Gaza has been devastated during over 21 months of conflict, raising concerns about worsening starvation.
Israel says Hamas is to blame for harm to civilians throughout the war, because its fighters operate among them, which the militants deny. It says it has allowed enough food into Gaza, and blames the United Nations for failing to distribute it. The U.N. says it has operated as effectively as possible under severe restrictions imposed by Israel.
Palestinian health officials have warned that hundreds of people could soon perish as hospitals are overwhelmed with patients experiencing dizziness and exhaustion amid severe food shortages and a breakdown in aid deliveries.
The head of the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, said that its staff, as well as doctors and humanitarian workers, were fainting on duty in Gaza due to hunger and exhaustion.
After images of starving Palestinians alarmed the world in recent weeks, Israel announced on Sunday a halt in military operations for 10 hours a day in parts of Gaza and new aid corridors.
Aid trucks began moving towards Gaza from Egypt, while Jordan and the United Arab Emirates airdropped supplies into the enclave.
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The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Why there hasn't been a formal declaration of famine in Gaza
The leading international authority on food crises said Tuesday that the 'worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in Gaza." It predicted 'widespread death' without immediate action. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said Gaza has been on the brink of famine for two years, and that recent developments, including 'increasingly stringent blockades' by Israel, have 'dramatically worsened' the situation. Even though Israel eased a 2 1/2-month blockade on the territory in May, aid groups say only a trickle of assistance is getting into the enclave and that Palestinians face catastrophic levels of hunger 21 months into the Israeli offensive launched after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack. Hundreds have been killed by Israeli forces as they try to reach aid sites or convoys, according to witnesses, health officials and the United Nations ' human rights office. The military says it has only fired warning shots. The IPC warning stopped short of a formal declaration of famine. Here's why: The IPC and aid groups says Gaza's hunger crisis is worsening Gaza's population of roughly 2 million Palestinians relies almost entirely on outside aid. Israel's offensive has wiped out what was already limited local food production. Israel's blockade, along with ongoing fighting and chaos inside the territory, has further limited people's access to food. The U.N. World Food Program says Gaza's hunger crisis has reached 'new and astonishing levels of desperation." Nearly 100,000 women and children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, and a third of Gaza's population is going days without eating, Ross Smith, the agency's director for emergencies, said Monday. Gaza's Health Ministry said Tuesday that more than 100 people have died while showing signs of hunger and malnutrition, mostly children. It did not give their exact cause of death. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, is staffed by medical professionals and its figures on war deaths are seen by the U.N. and other experts as the most reliable estimate of casualties. Famine occurs when these conditions are met The IPC was first set up in 2004 during the famine in Somalia. It includes more than a dozen U.N. agencies, aid groups, governments and other bodies. Famine can appear in pockets — sometimes small ones — and a formal classification requires caution. The IPC has only declared famine a few times — in Somalia in 2011, and South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, and last year in parts of Sudan's western Darfur region. Tens of thousands are believed to have died in Somalia and South Sudan. It rates an area as in famine when all three of these conditions are confirmed: — 20% of households have an extreme lack of food, or are essentially starving. — At least 30% of children 6 months to 5 years old suffer from acute malnutrition, based on a weight-to-height measurement; or 15% of that age group suffer from acute malnutrition based on the circumference of their upper arm. — At least two people, or four children under 5, per 10,000 are dying daily due to starvation or the interaction of malnutrition and disease. Gaza poses a major challenge for experts because Israel severely limits access to the territory, making it difficult and in some cases impossible to gather data. The IPC said Tuesday that data indicate famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of Gaza, and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City. Famine declarations usually come from the UN or governments While the IPC says it is the 'primary mechanism' used by the international community to conclude whether a famine is happening or projected, it typically doesn't make such a declaration itself. Often, U.N. officials together with governments will make a formal statement based on an analysis from the IPC. But the IPC says once a famine is declared it's already too late. While it can prevent further deaths, it means many people will have died by the time a famine is declared. It's not always clear that hunger is the cause of death Most cases of severe malnutrition in children arise through a combination of lack of nutrients along with an infection, leading to diarrhea and other symptoms that cause dehydration, said Alex de Waal, author of 'Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine' and executive director of the World Peace Foundation. 'There are no standard guidelines for physicians to classify cause of death as 'malnutrition' as opposed to infection," he said. When famine occurs, there are often relatively few deaths from hunger alone. Far more people die from a combination of malnutrition, disease and other forms of deprivation. All of these count as excess deaths — separate from violence — that can be attributed to a food crisis or famine, he said. The war has made it hard to get accurate information Israel's offensive has gutted Gaza's health system and displaced some 90% of its population. With hospitals damaged and overwhelmed by war casualties, it can be difficult to screen people for malnutrition and collect precise data on deaths. 'Data and surveillance systems are incomplete and eroded," said James Smith, an emergency doctor and lecturer in humanitarian policy at the University College London who spent more than two months in Gaza. 'Which means that all health indicators — and the death toll — are known to be an underestimation,' he said. Even when famine is declared, the response can be lacking A declaration of famine should in theory galvanize the international community to rush food to those who need it. But with aid budgets already stretched, and war and politics throwing up obstacles, that doesn't always happen. 'There is not a big, huge bank account' to draw on, said OCHA's Laerke. 'The fundamental problem is that we build the fire engine as we respond.' Aid groups say plenty of food and other aid has been gathered on Gaza's borders, but Israel is allowing only a small amount to enter. Within Gaza, gunfire, chaos and looting have plagued the distribution of food. The international pressure led Israel to announce new measures over the weekend, including daily humanitarian pauses in fighting in parts of Gaza and airdrops of food. Israel says there's no limit on how many aid trucks can enter Gaza. U.N. agencies say Israeli restrictions, and the breakdown of law and order, make it difficult to distribute the food that does come in. 'Only a massive scale-up in food aid distributions can stabilize this spiraling situation, calm anxieties and rebuild the trust within communities that more food is coming,' the World Food Program said. 'An agreed ceasefire is long overdue.' ___ Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.
Reuters
3 hours ago
- Reuters
How many Palestinians has Israel's Gaza offensive killed?
July 29 (Reuters) - Palestinian health authorities say Israel's ground and air campaign against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 60,000 people, with nearly a third of the dead under the age of 18. After a two-month ceasefire earlier this year, Israel resumed an all-out air and ground campaign against Hamas in March. Palestinian health officials say more than 8,500 have been killed since then. The war began on Oct. 7, 2023 when Hamas militants stormed across the border into Israeli communities. Israel says the militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 people into captivity in Gaza. A new update released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health on Tuesday put the number of those killed in Gaza during the war at 60,034 people, ranging from a newborn baby to a 110-year-old. Of those, 18,592 or 30.8% were under 18. The official Palestinian Health Ministry death toll dwarfs those killed in previous bouts of fighting between Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza since 2005, according to data from Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem. An international monitoring group warned on Tuesday a worst-case scenario of famine is now unfolding in Gaza and immediate action is needed to avoid widespread death. This explainer examines how the Palestinian toll is calculated, how reliable it is, the breakdown of civilians and fighters killed and what each side says. In the first months of the war, death tolls were calculated simply by counting bodies that arrived in hospitals and data included names and identity numbers for most of those killed. In May 2024, the ministry included unidentified bodies, which accounted for nearly a third of the overall toll. However, since October 2024, it has only included identified bodies. A Reuters examination in March of an earlier Gaza Health Ministry list of those killed showed that more than 1,200 families were completely wiped out, including one family of 14 people. The numbers do not necessarily reflect all victims, as the Palestinian Health Ministry estimates several thousand bodies are under rubble. Official Palestinian tallies of direct deaths in the Gaza war likely undercounted the number of casualties by around 40% in the first nine months of the war as Gaza's healthcare infrastructure unravelled, according to a peer-reviewed study published in The Lancet journal in January. The U.N. human rights office also says the Palestinian authorities' figure is probably an undercount. The deaths the U.N. has verified up to March this year show that nearly 70% were women and children. Pre-war Gaza had robust population statistics and better health information systems than in most Middle East countries, public health experts told Reuters. The U.N. often cites the ministry's death figures and the World Health Organization has voiced full confidence in them. While Hamas has run Gaza since 2007, the enclave's Health Ministry also answers to the overall Palestinian Authority ministry in Ramallah in the West Bank. Gaza's Hamas-run government has paid the salaries of all those hired in public departments since 2007, including in the Health Ministry. The Palestinian Authority pays the salaries of those hired before then. Israeli officials have said previously that the death toll figures are suspect because of Hamas' control over government in Gaza and are manipulated. The government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Palestinian health authorities' toll passing 60,000. The Israeli military says 454 of its soldiers were killed in combat, and 2,840 others wounded since its Gaza ground operation began on Oct. 27, 2023. The Israeli military also says it goes to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties. It says Hamas uses Gaza's civilians as human shields by operating within densely populated areas, humanitarian zones, schools and hospitals, which Hamas denies. The Palestinian Health Ministry figures do not differentiate between civilians and Hamas combatants, who do not wear formal uniform or carry separate identification. The Israeli military said in January 2025 it had killed nearly 20,000 Hamas fighters. It has not provided an update since. Such estimates are reached through a combination of counting bodies on the battlefield, intercepts of Hamas communications and intelligence assessments of personnel in targets that were destroyed. Hamas has said Israeli estimates of its losses are exaggerated, without saying how many of its fighters have been killed.
The Sun
4 hours ago
- The Sun
Scale of Gaza hunger is seen from space as satellite pics show crowd surround aid trucks after UN declares famine
THE hunger crisis spreading across Gaza can now be seen from space in gut-wrenching satellite images. Thousands of starving Palestinians can be seen crowding around aid trucks begging for food in the war-torn Strip. 8 8 8 The pictures were taken before the United Nations warned of a serious famine being created in Hamas territory. Images from the south of the Strip show civilians gathering around 15 lorries which were all sent into Gaza filled with food. Away from the surging crowds sits evidence of the gruelling conditions in which Palestinians have been living in for just under two years now. Makeshift tents and crumbling buildings are spread across the Strip with a ceasefire deal with Hamas thugs and Israeli forces yet to be agreed. Global leaders, including UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump, have said a peace deal must be made to save those living under the awful conditions. The calls for a ceasefire have been amplified in recent days after the global body responsible for monitoring hunger warned Gazans are now experiencing the "worst-case scenario of famine". The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), an initiative made up of 21 aid groups, governments and UN agencies, announced: "Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths." Famine has not yet been confirmed in the region with the IPC still trying to ascertain all the facts on the ground. They will need to prove at least 20 per cent of Gaza's 2.1 million population - 420,000 people - are experiencing an "extreme" lack of food. More than 30 per cent of children under five also have to be suffering from acute malnutrition with at least two people per 10,000 dying from starvation per day. Israel to allow foreign aid to parachute into Gaza but continues bombardment despite growing global pleas for ceasefire In July, at least 63 people, including 24 children under five, died from hunger, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Hamas' health ministry claims 127 people have died from a lack of food since Israel launched a counter attack inside Gaza following October 7. It alleges at least a third of them are children. The scale of hunger comes after Israel accused Hamas of treating civilians in the Strip as pawns and human shields. Israel has also claimed the terrorists are stealing food from aid trucks. Earlier this month, 20 people were killed at an aid distribution site in Gaza after a "chaotic and dangerous" crowd surge. The US and Israel-backed GHF said it believed the harrowing push was "driven by agitators in the crowd" who were affiliated to Hamas. Harrowing scenes also saw Palestinian people overrun food trucks carrying aid into Gaza. Distressing footage shared by Turkish news site TRT shows a sea of starving Gazans desperately climbing onto vehicles to reach food. 8 8 8 Some individuals appear to manage to grab boxes of aid, while other malnourished people seem to scramble to safety due to the heaving crowds. Israel announced a pause in fighting over the weekend and have started to allow food to be air dropped into Gaza. They are also working on opening up new supply corridors for aid workers to safely deliver food. Military operations will be halted for 10 hours each day as officials look to establish the new designated humanitarian aid corridors. It comes as Trump has revealed he has a mystery plan with Israel to end the war in Gaza and announced a mission to get aid to starving Palestinians. The US President vowed to set up food centres across Gaza - insisting: "We want to get the children fed." He described the scenes as "terrible" - adding: "We have to help on a humanitarian basis. He also distanced himself from comments made by Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who insisted there was no starvation in Gaza. Netanyahu had said on Sunday: "There is no policy of starvation in Gaza and there is no starvation in Gaza." Asked if he agreed with the Israeli PM, Trump said: "I don't know. I mean, based on television, I would say not, particularly because those children look very hungry." 8 8
