1 of 1 Children in a destroyed car in Rafah, Gaza Photo: AFP Children in a destroyed car in Rafah, Gaza Photo: AFP
The Hamas Ministry of Health announced this on Thursday (29). The death toll in Gaza exceeded 30,000 since the conflict with Israel began on October 7th. In a statement, the group reported at least 79 new deaths in Israeli night raids from 28 to 29.
The pushing does not distinguish between the deaths of civilians and members of Hamas and other terrorist groups.
The assessment comes as the war's main mediators, the United States and Qatar, say they hope for a ceasefire that would allow the release of hostages held in Gaza before the start of Ramadan, the holy month of Muslim fasting . The conflict has turned the Palestinian territory into a “death zone,” according to the United Nations, and is already by far the deadliest of the five conflicts pitting Israel against Hamas since Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip in 2007.
According to the group that controls the territory, Israeli bombings have devastated entire neighborhoods and forced 1.7 million Palestinians out of a total population of 2.4 million to flee their homes.
“For me this is genocide. “Who bombs a building with residents, especially civilians, children and women?” said Jihad Salha, a displaced Palestinian whom AFP met at a makeshift camp in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
The conflict erupted on October 7 after Hamas militants infiltrating from the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented attack in southern Israel, killing 1,404 people.
Around 250 people were kidnapped in the attack and taken to Gaza. In retaliation, Israel pledged to destroy Hamas, which it, along with the United States and the European Union, considers a terrorist organization.
According to Israel, 130 hostages remain in custody, 31 of whom are believed to be dead. In November, 105 hostages were released in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners, during the only ceasefire negotiated in the conflict to date.
After bombing on land, sea and air, the Israeli army launched a ground offensive in the north of the Palestinian territory on October 27, while simultaneously advancing south. Since then it has lost 242 soldiers.
In the area besieged by Israel since October 9, 2.2 million people, the vast majority of the population, are at risk of starvation, according to the United Nations, particularly in the north where destruction, fighting and looting make the delivery of humanitarian aid almost impossible Help. The United Nations also denounced obstacles imposed by Israel, which controls the import of aid into Egypt.
According to the United Nations Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA), the need for humanitarian assistance is “unlimited.” “Famine is imminent. Hospitals have turned into battlefields. One million children face trauma every day,” the agency said.
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, seven children died of “dehydration and malnutrition” at AlShifa Hospital in Gaza City and another seven at Kamal Adwan Hospital, also in the north.
The international community is also concerned about an impending Israeli ground offensive in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, where the UN says there are around 1.5 million Palestinians, most of whom are displaced.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he wanted to defeat Hamas in its “last stronghold.” He explained that a ceasefire would only “delay” such an offensive while ensuring that civilians were evacuated from combat areas.
The target of daily Israeli bombings, Rafah, which had a population of 270,000 before the war, is the main entry point for aid into Gaza, which arrives in very limited quantities.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) says it is discussing the opening of “many more border crossings” with the Palestinian authorities. “It's a matter of life and death,” said its administrator Samantha Power on the social network X.
Qatar, the United States and Egypt are trying to reach a ceasefire agreement that would include a sixweek pause in fighting in which one hostage, including women, minors and sick elderly people, would be exchanged daily for 10 Palestinians detained by Israel, according to a Hamas source.
On Monday, US President Joe Biden spoke of “an agreement by Israel not to take part in operations during Ramadan” to “remove all hostages”. “I hope that we will have a ceasefire by next Monday,” he stressed, stressing that this “has not happened yet.”
About 150 Israelis began a fourday march from Reim in southern Israel to Jerusalem to demand their government agree to the release of the hostages. “There will be no victory if our citizens remain in captivity,” one of them, Niv Cohen, a survivor of the October 7 attacks, told AFP.
On the diplomatic front, representatives of Palestinian factions, including the rival Hamas and Fatah movements, are in Moscow this Thursday for talks with Russian diplomatic chief Sergei Lavrov.