GAZA: Israel kept up its barrage of the Gaza Strip on Thursday despite intensifying international calls to reduce civilian casualties from its bombardment as a surge in deadly diseases sweeps through displaced residents.
Since October 7, Israel has laid much of the Palestinian enclave to waste. At least 18,787 Palestinians have been killed and 50,897 wounded in Israeli strikes, the Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said in a statement on Thursday. The vast majority of the population of 2.3 million has fled their homes, many sleeping rough, leaving them vulnerable to illness.
At Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, where the trauma ward has been overwhelmed with the wounded, sick babies were also crammed several to a bed in the children's ward.
"A number of patients come with cases of extreme dehydration, some of which can get to the point of kidney failure or weakening kidney function," said Dr Ahmed al-Farra, head of pediatrics.
There had already been up to 30 cases of hepatitis A, which takes up to a month to incubate, he said.
"So after a month there will be an explosion in the number of cases of hepatitis A, and this is a very dangerous indicator that should be paid attention to, from overcrowding and consuming food not fit for human consumption and using shared toilets," he said.
The coastal strip is now facing a public health disaster due to the collapse of its health system and the spread of disease, the U.N. humanitarian office said.
"We've got a textbook formula for epidemics and a public health disaster," said Lynn Hastings, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
In central Rafah, in the south of the coastal enclave, 24 people were killed in an Israeli strike that hit two houses, Hamas media said early on Thursday. There was no immediate confirmation from the Palestinian health ministry.
Nearly half of the air-to-ground munitions that Israel has used in Gaza in its war have been unguided, otherwise known as "dumb bombs," according to a U.S. intelligence assessment reported by CNN.
Some 271 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli security forces, including 69 children, in the occupied West Bank this year, the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency said.
At least 288 displaced people in shelters run by the agency have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, the agency added in a post on X.
The number of Israeli soldiers killed in the ground offensive has reached 115, and more than 600 wounded, according to an Israeli military website. — Reuters
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