Gaza’s Health Ministry said Thursday that Israel’s assault on Gaza killed 17 more Palestinians in the previous 24-hour period, bringing the recorded death toll to 40,878.
Another 56 Palestinians were wounded, bringing the number of Palestinians injured in Gaza since October 7 to 94,454. Health officials told WAFA that emergency services are still unable to reach many casualties and dead bodies trapped under the rubble or scattered on roads.
Israeli strikes were reported across the Gaza Strip as the unrelenting violence continues. According to Al Jazeera, Israeli forces conducted an overnight raid in the al-Mawasi humanitarian zone in central Gaza, which has been deemed a permanent “safe zone” but has been repeatedly targeted by Israel.
WAFA reported two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone bombing in an area north of Rafah in southern Gaza. At least three people were killed in an Israeli strike near a school in Gaza City, and casualties were reported in a strike near the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza.
The numbers from Gaza’s Health Ministry are considered a low estimate since they don’t include Palestinians who are missing and presumed dead under the rubble, which has previously been estimated to be about 10,000 people.
It’s also unclear how many people have died in Gaza due to indirect causes. A letter written by a group of experts recently published in the British medical journal The Lancet estimated the total number of deaths in Gaza, including those killed by the Israeli military and indirect causes, could reach 186,000. They reached the numbers by using the death toll from the end of June, which was 37,396.
