Gaza’s Health Ministry said Monday that Israeli attacks killed at least 27 Palestinians and wounded 149 in the previous 24-hour period as the US-backed daily slaughter continues.
The Health Ministry’s numbers only include dead and wounded Palestinians brought to hospitals and morgues and do not account for those missing under the rubble or indirect deaths caused by the Israeli siege.
Also on Monday, a baby died in Gaza because of the cold weather, marking the sixth time within a week that an infant died due to exposure in tent camps amid dropping temperatures and heavy rains.
Ali al-Batran, a one-month-old baby, died after being brought to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza. A day earlier, his twin brother, Jumaa al-Batran, was found dead by their parents in a tent they were sheltering in. The twins were born one month premature and could only spend one day in the nursery since Gaza’s hospitals are overwhelmed due to Israel’s destruction of the Strip’s medical infrastructure.
Heavy rains have flooded tent camps in Gaza, and many tents are completely worn out after being used for more than a year. According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, more than 80% of the tents in Gaza are worn out, and more deaths due to exposure are expected.
While Palestinian families are struggling to survive in tents, Israeli attacks continue across the Strip. According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, at least four civilians were killed by an Israeli strike in Jabalia, northern Gaza.
Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, also claimed it launched a major attack on Israeli troops in the Jabalia Refugee Camp, which has been almost completely destroyed by the Israeli military as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign. The Qassam Brigades claimed it “eliminated” five Israeli soldiers, but the IDF only confirmed the death of one soldier in north Gaza and said several others were wounded.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said the latest violence brought its death toll since October 2023 to 45,541 and the number of wounded to 108,338.
In October, a group of American healthcare workers who volunteered in Gaza estimated in an open letter to President Biden that the US-backed Israeli onslaught has killed at least 118,908 Palestinians, a total that includes indirect deaths caused by the Israeli siege. 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.
