Rafah: Gaza’s Health Ministry says the Palestinian death toll from the Israel-Hamas war has climbed to 30,717.
It said Wednesday that 86 bodies were brought to local hospitals in the last 24 hours, in addition to 113 wounded people.
The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and maintains detailed casualty records. Its figures from previous wars have largely matched those of the United Nations, independent experts and even Israeli counts.
The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its tallies but says women and children make up around two-thirds of those killed.
It says the real toll is higher as there are bodies buried in the rubble from Israeli airstrikes and in areas that paramedics cannot access. It says over 72,000 people have been wounded in the war.
Israel says it has killed over 10,000 Hamas fighters, without providing evidence.
The war began after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel October 7, in which Palestinian militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 hostages.
Israel’s offensive has driven some 80 per cent of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million from their homes and pushed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to the brink of starvation.
AP