Over 17,000 killed as Gaza war enters third month
Published: 05:12 PM,Dec 07,2023 | EDITED : 09:12 PM,Dec 07,2023
Gaza Strip: The Israel-Hamas war has killed at least 17,177 people in the Gaza Strip, the health ministry in the Palestinian territory said on Thursday.
The ministry said 350 were killed in the past 24 hours as intense Israeli bombardments continued in Gaza two months since the war erupted after a surprise attack by Hamas in southern Israel.
Heavy urban combat raged in and around Gaza's biggest cities on Thursday as the bloodiest ever war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas entered its third month since the October 7 attacks.
Vast areas of the besieged territory have been reduced to a rubble-strewn wasteland of bombed-out or bullet-scarred buildings.
Israeli forces have tightened the noose around major urban centres in their hunt for Hamas over the surprise attack that officials say killed 1,200 in Israel, and to search for 138 remaining hostages.
Israeli forces backed by air power, tanks and armoured bulldozers were fighting Hamas in Khan Younis, the biggest city in southern Gaza, as well as in Gaza City and the nearby Jabalia district in the north.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said troops had closed in on the Khan Younis house of Hamas's Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, 61, and vowed that, although he could flee, 'it is only a matter of time until we find him'.
Air strikes also rained down on Rafah in Gaza's far south, a city near the Egyptian border that has been turned into a vast camp for many of the 1.9 million internally displaced Palestinians.
One of those on the move, Khamis Al Dalu, said that he had first fled Gaza City and then Khan Younis for Rafah, where his family was now sheltered in a tent against the worsening winter chill.
'There was bombardment, destruction, leaflets dropped, threats and phone calls to evacuate and to leave Khan Younis,' he said about Israeli army warnings. 'Where do you want us to go for God's sake?'
Eight more air strikes hit Rafah overnight, an AFP correspondent said, as the health ministry reported at least 37 people killed and many more wounded.
Searching for survivors and bodies in the dusty rubble, bereaved relatives carried away the remains of a little girl, wrapped in thin, flower-patterned fabric.
Mass civilian casualties in the war have sparked global concern, heightened by dire shortages caused by an Israeli siege that has seen only limited supplies of food, water, fuel and medicines enter Gaza.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen lashed out after the UN chief invoked a rare UN procedure to call for a ceasefire, charging that this would support Hamas and that Guterres' tenure was 'a danger to world peace'.
The months of fighting have inflicted a heavy toll on Palestinians inside Gaza, a territory that had been blockaded and poverty-stricken for years before the war, the fifth and by far the deadliest between Israel and Hamas.
'We are devastated, mentally overwhelmed,' said Khan Younis resident Amal Mahdi. 'We need someone to find us a solution so we can get out of this situation.'
Another Palestinian man, Ghassan Bakr, said: 'We arrived here, homeless. It rained on us last night. There is no food, no bread, no flour.'
The ministry said 350 were killed in the past 24 hours as intense Israeli bombardments continued in Gaza two months since the war erupted after a surprise attack by Hamas in southern Israel.
Heavy urban combat raged in and around Gaza's biggest cities on Thursday as the bloodiest ever war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas entered its third month since the October 7 attacks.
Vast areas of the besieged territory have been reduced to a rubble-strewn wasteland of bombed-out or bullet-scarred buildings.
Israeli forces have tightened the noose around major urban centres in their hunt for Hamas over the surprise attack that officials say killed 1,200 in Israel, and to search for 138 remaining hostages.
Israeli forces backed by air power, tanks and armoured bulldozers were fighting Hamas in Khan Younis, the biggest city in southern Gaza, as well as in Gaza City and the nearby Jabalia district in the north.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said troops had closed in on the Khan Younis house of Hamas's Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar, 61, and vowed that, although he could flee, 'it is only a matter of time until we find him'.
Air strikes also rained down on Rafah in Gaza's far south, a city near the Egyptian border that has been turned into a vast camp for many of the 1.9 million internally displaced Palestinians.
One of those on the move, Khamis Al Dalu, said that he had first fled Gaza City and then Khan Younis for Rafah, where his family was now sheltered in a tent against the worsening winter chill.
'There was bombardment, destruction, leaflets dropped, threats and phone calls to evacuate and to leave Khan Younis,' he said about Israeli army warnings. 'Where do you want us to go for God's sake?'
Eight more air strikes hit Rafah overnight, an AFP correspondent said, as the health ministry reported at least 37 people killed and many more wounded.
Searching for survivors and bodies in the dusty rubble, bereaved relatives carried away the remains of a little girl, wrapped in thin, flower-patterned fabric.
Mass civilian casualties in the war have sparked global concern, heightened by dire shortages caused by an Israeli siege that has seen only limited supplies of food, water, fuel and medicines enter Gaza.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen lashed out after the UN chief invoked a rare UN procedure to call for a ceasefire, charging that this would support Hamas and that Guterres' tenure was 'a danger to world peace'.
The months of fighting have inflicted a heavy toll on Palestinians inside Gaza, a territory that had been blockaded and poverty-stricken for years before the war, the fifth and by far the deadliest between Israel and Hamas.
'We are devastated, mentally overwhelmed,' said Khan Younis resident Amal Mahdi. 'We need someone to find us a solution so we can get out of this situation.'
Another Palestinian man, Ghassan Bakr, said: 'We arrived here, homeless. It rained on us last night. There is no food, no bread, no flour.'