More than 5,000 Palestinians have died in the beleaguered Palestinian territory of Gaza since Israel began its ferocious bombing assault more than two weeks ago, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza.
Concerns about the escalating humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza have increased during the conflict precipitated by the October 7 Hamas attack, which Israeli officials claim resulted in the deaths of more than 1,400 people who were shot, stabbed, or burned by the Islamist militants. More least 200 hostages were also taken by Hamas.
On a day when Israel’s army reported more than 300 new strikes within 24 hours, Gaza’s health ministry said the death toll had surged above 5,000, around 40 per cent of them children.
Africa Today News, New York reports that thousands of buildings have been destroyed and more than one million people displaced in the territory that has been under siege and largely deprived of water, food and other basic supplies.
About a dozen trucks carrying desperately needed aid — the third convoy in three days — arrived inside Gaza from Egypt on Monday through Rafah, Gaza’s only crossing not controlled by Israel.
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The United States, which has brokered the entry of the aid convoys, has vowed a “continued flow” of relief goods into Gaza, even as UN aid agencies have said far more is needed.
Fighting raged unabated overnight after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed again that Israel would “erase Hamas” and as a full-scale ground invasion loomed.
Gaza’s Hamas-controlled government media office said that “more than 60 were martyred in the raids” during the night — including 17 in a single strike that hit a house in Gaza’s north — and at least 10 others were killed in new strikes early Monday.
The Israeli military said it had hit “over 320 military targets in the Gaza Strip” in the past 24 hours.
It said the targets “included tunnels containing Hamas terrorists, dozens of operational command centres” as well as “military compounds and observation posts” used by Islamic Jihad, another militant group.
Tensions have been inflamed in the occupied West Bank, where 95 Palestinians have been killed in clashes involving Israeli security forces or settlers since fighting began in Gaza, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Israel kept evacuating southern communities near Gaza.
US President Joe Biden brokered the passage of aid convoys with Egyptian and Israeli leaders in talks last week — but the United Nations estimates Gaza needs about 100 trucks of relief goods every day.
UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said Sunday’s delivery of food, water and medical supplies was “another small glimmer of hope for the millions of people in dire need of humanitarian aid.