Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Thursday that Israeli attacks killed at least 71 Palestinians and wounded 176 in the previous 24-hour period as Israeli strikes continued to pound targets across the Strip.
Al Jazeera reported that Israeli strikes in northern Gaza early Thursday killed 88 people, but the Health Ministry only counts bodies that are brought to hospitals and morgues. The strikes in north Gaza targeted Beith Lahia, where 66 were killed, and the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, where 22 were killed.
“A number of victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them,” the ministry said.
Beit Lahia has been under a total Israeli siege since early October as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign. Hind Khoudary, a reporter for Al Jazeera, said there were no paramedics or civil defense crews left in Beit Lahia. “There are dozens of Palestinians still trapped under the rubble in the two northern areas targeted overnight – Sheikh Radwan and Beit Lahia,” Khoudary said.
Israeli strikes were also reported in southern and central areas of Gaza. In the southern city of Rafah, at least three Palestinians were killed. Israeli strikes near Khan Younis also killed at least three people.
The Health Ministry said that the latest violence has brought its death toll to 44,056 and the number of wounded to 104,268. The figures don’t account for Palestinians missing and presumed dead under the rubble, which has previously been estimated to be over 10,000.
A group of American healthcare workers who volunteered in Gaza estimated in an open letter to President Biden in October that the US-backed Israeli bombing campaign and siege have killed at least 118,908 Palestinians, including over 60,000 who have starved to death. Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, who led the letter, told Antiwar.com in a recent interview that the estimate was the bare minimum they came up with by looking at the available data.
