Gaza death toll surpasses 42,200 as Israel kills 52 more Palestinians
At least 52 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, pushing up the overall death toll since last year to 42,227, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Sunday.
A ministry statement added that some 98,464 others were injured in the ongoing assault.
“Israeli forces killed 52 people and injured 128 others in four massacres of families in the last 24 hours,” the ministry said.
“Many people are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.
Israel has continued its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.
The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.
Mediation efforts led by the US, Egypt, and Qatar to reach a Gaza cease-fire and prisoner swap agreement between Israel and Hamas have failed over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to halt the war.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.
Death toll from Israeli attacks on Lebanon since last October surpasses 2,300
Nearly 10,700 injured since Oct. 8, 2023, says Lebanese Health Ministry.
The death toll from Israeli attacks on Lebanon since last October rose to 2,306, with 10,698 others injured, the Lebanese Health Ministry said on Sunday.
In a statement, the ministry said 51 people were killed and 174 others injured over the last 24 hours.
Israel has mounted massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing at least 1,488 people, injuring over 4,297 others, and displacing more than 1.34 million people.
The aerial campaign is an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of its offensive on the Gaza Strip, in which Israel has killed over 42,200 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.
Despite international warnings that the Mideast was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, it expanded the conflict on Oct. 1 by launching an incursion into southern Lebanon.
AA