Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry yesterday said that more than 5,000 people have been killed in the besieged Palestinian enclave since Israel launched its withering bombing campaign more than two weeks ago.

Alarm has surged about the spiraling humanitarian crisis in Gaza amid the war sparked by the Oct. 7 Hamas attack that Israeli officials say killed more than 1,400 people who were gunned down, stabbed or burnt by the Islamist militants.

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, with more than 2,000 of the dead being children, in figures Agence France-Presse has not been able to independently verify.

About a dozen trucks carrying desperately needed aid — the third convoy in three days — arrived in Gaza from Egypt yesterday through Rafah, Gaza’s only crossing not controlled by Israel.

The US, 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.

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 yesterday.

The Israeli military said that 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 centers,” as well as “military compounds and observation posts” used by Islamic Jihad, another militant group.

Source: Taipei Times

BDST: 1017 HRS, OCT 24, 2023
MN