A Palestinian girl clutches salvaged books as people look for survivors in the rubble of a destroyed building hit in an Israeli strike in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 24, 2023. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)
Israel is escalating its bombardment of targets in the Gaza Strip ahead of an expected ground invasion against Hamas militants. The war is rapidly raising the death toll in Gaza, and the U.S. fears could the fighting could spark a wider conflict in the region
Gaza's 2.3 million people have been running out of food, water and medicine since Israel sealed off the territory following the Hamas attack on Israeli towns Oct. 7. The aid convoys allowed into Gaza so far have carried a fraction of what's needed, and the U.N. said distribution will have to stop if there's no fuel for the trucks.
The war, in its 18th day Tuesday, is the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Health Ministry said at least 5,087 Palestinians have been killed and 15,270 wounded. In the occupied West Bank, 96 Palestinians have been killed and 1,650 wounded in violence and Israeli raids since Oct. 7.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly civilians who died in the initial Hamas rampage. In addition, 222 people including foreigners were believed captured by Hamas during the incursion and taken into Gaza, Israel's military has said. Four of those have been released.
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said six of its workers have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, bringing the total to 35 dead since Oct. 7. In a statement late Monday, the agency, known as UNRWA, said 18 other workers were wounded. UNRWA said it found shrapnel in its facilities in the Bureij camp and in Nuseirat in central Gaza from Israel's bombardment of nearby areas Sunday.
Fifteen members of the same family were among at least 33 Palestinians buried in a mass grave at a Gaza hospital on Monday after they were killed by Israeli airstrikes.
A harried-looking doctor in green scrubs walked past as bodies in white sheets were loaded into the back of a pickup truck. Men discussed where to fit the shrouded corpse of a small child between two adults.
Side-by-side, the bodies were laid to rest in a shallow, sandy grave in the courtyard of al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, an ambulance parked nearby. "Bring them all," a gravedigger called out.
Over 5,000 Palestinians, including some 2,000 minors, have been killed by Israeli defence forces since the war began on October 7, Gaza's Health Ministry said
Italy's foreign minister Antonio Tajani has said the last of three Italian-Israeli citizens who had been missing in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel is also dead.
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