By WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY, Related Press
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Greater than 45,000 Palestinians have now been killed within the conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas militants, Palestinian well being officers stated Monday, as often-stalled ceasefire negotiations gave the impression to be gaining floor once more.
Greater than 50 useless had been delivered to hospitals throughout the bombed-out territory over the previous 24 hours, Gaza’s Well being Ministry stated.
Qatar, Egypt and the USA have renewed efforts to dealer a ceasefire deal in current days, and mediators have stated there seems to be extra willingness from either side after 14 months of conflict.
Hamas has been designated as a terrorist group by the USA, Canada and the European Union.
The well being ministry stated 45,028 individuals have been killed and 106,962 others have been wounded because the conflict started, and warned that the true toll is larger as a result of 1000’s of our bodies are buried beneath rubble or in areas that medics can’t entry.
Palestinians pray subsequent to the our bodies of their family members killed within the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, at a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. (AP Photograph/Abdel Kareem Hana)
The ministry’s rely doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants, nevertheless it has stated greater than half of fatalities are girls and kids. The Israeli navy says it has killed greater than 17,000 militants, with out offering proof.
The conflict is by far the deadliest spherical of combating between Israel and Hamas, with the demise toll amounting to roughly 2% of Gaza’s prewar inhabitants of about 2.3 million.
A household dies as one other airstrike hits a shelter
Among the many newest killed had been 10 individuals, together with a household of 4, in an in a single day Israeli strike in Gaza Metropolis’s jap Shijaiyah neighborhood, Palestinian medics stated.
Israel claims Hamas is answerable for the civilian demise toll as a result of it operates from inside civilian areas within the densely populated Gaza Strip. Rights teams and Palestinians say Israel has did not take adequate precautions to keep away from civilian deaths.
The conflict started when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 individuals, largely civilians, and abducting one other 250. Israel responded by heavy bombardment and a floor incursion into the Palestinian enclave. Round 100 hostages are nonetheless inside Gaza, at the least a 3rd believed to be useless. A lot of the relaxation had been launched throughout a ceasefire final yr.
A separate strike on a faculty on Sunday within the southern metropolis of Khan Younis killed at the least 13 individuals, together with six kids and two girls, in line with Nasser Hospital, the place the our bodies had been taken. The hospital initially reported the strike had killed 16 however later stated three our bodies had been from a separate strike.
Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman for the United Nations reduction company for Palestinians, stated she met with kids injured in Sunday’s strike. They included a 17-year-old woman with a extreme leg damage and shrapnel wounds.
She survived alongside along with her twin sister and three different sisters, Wateridge stated, however their mom was killed. Wateridge stated one sister described “how their mother’s bones were crushed under the rubble. There was nothing they could do to save her.”
The Israeli navy stated it had struck Hamas fighters working inside a command middle embedded in a compound that had served as a faculty in Khan Younis. It didn’t present proof.
A Palestinian journalist is mourned
In central Gaza’s Nuseirat city refugee camp, mourners gathered for the funeral of a Palestinian journalist working for the Qatari-based Al Jazeera TV community who was killed Sunday in a strike that hit Gaza’s civil protection company. They carried his physique via the streets, alongside together with his bulletproof vest.
Al Jazeera stated Ahmad Baker Al-Louh, 39, had been masking rescue operations of a household wounded in an earlier bombing when he was killed.
The strike additionally killed three civil protection employees, together with the native head of the company, in line with Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. The civil protection is Gaza’s essential rescue company and operates beneath the Hamas-run authorities.
The Worldwide Federation of Journalists stated final week that 104 journalists and media employees have been killed in 2024, with greater than half dying in Gaza.
The Israeli navy stated its strike focused Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants in a command middle embedded within the places of work of the “Civil Defense” group. It accused the journalist of getting been a member of Islamic Jihad, which his colleagues in Gaza denied.
Gaza’s civil protection rejected the claims that militants operated from the location.
“We were stunned by the Israeli occupation statement,” Mahmoud al-Lawh, the journalist’s cousin, informed The Related Press. “These claims are lies and misleading to cover up this crime.”
Magdy reported from Cairo.
Initially Printed: December 16, 2024 at 11:10 AM EST
