At least 24,937 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war on October 7, the Palestinian Health Ministry stated on Saturday.
An additional 62,300 have also been wounded in the same time period, Al-Jazeera reported.
The Spokesman for the Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip Ashraf Al-Qudra also told Al- Jazeera that Israel has targeted the healthcare system since the very beginning of the war on October 7.
“The aid entering the Gaza Strip does not meet basic health needs,” he said, adding, “We try to differentiate between cases among the wounded and sick to save who we can.”
He added that Israel controls the mechanism for the exit of patients who urgently require medical treatment outside the Gaza Strip.
Israel started its military aggression against Gaza on October 7, 2023 following an operation by the territory’s resistance groups, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm.
According to the UN, 85% of the population of Gaza is already internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure is damaged or destroyed.
According to a report, Gaza health authorities report the death toll in the Strip has risen to nearly 25,000. This comes as the Israeli military says its ground troops are expanding their offensive in southern Gaza.
The Israeli military said on Thursday that one of its brigades in Khan Younis “is now fighting in the southernmost area” that its “ground troops have operated in so far.” It added that the soldiers have killed dozens of Hamas fighters. There are many evacuees in that region.
The military says Hamas has been militarizing the city’s Nasser Hospital.
A senior Doctors Without Borders staff member said the situation at the hospital is “catastrophic.” The international NGO, which is helping the hospital, says there are too many patients for the staff members to handle because the fighting is taking place nearby.
Health authorities in Gaza said on Thursday that Israeli attacks had killed 172 people over the past 24 hours. They added that the death toll has reached 24,620.
The Financial Times, a British economic newspaper, reported on Thursday that Arab states are working on an initiative to secure a ceasefire and the release of the hostages in Gaza.
The initiative is said to be part of a broader plan. The report cited a senior Arab official as saying that the plan could include “the prize of Saudi Arabia formalizing ties with Israel,” if Israel agrees to take “irreversible” steps towards the creation of a Palestinian state.
The newspaper said that Arab officials have discussed the plan with US and European government officials. Arab officials reportedly hope to present the plan to Israel within a few weeks.
