Death toll of Palestinians in Gaza nears 20,000
Gaza: The death toll of Palestinians from Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 19,667, and 52,586 others have been wounded since October 7, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Palestinian deaths and injuries from Israeli raids in the West Bank climbed to 301 and 3,365, respectively, according to the ministry.
In Gaza, over the past 24 hours, 214 Palestinians were killed and 300 others injured in Israel's raids, while a large number of victims were still under rubble, Ashraf Al-Qedra, Health Ministry spokesman, said at a press conference held in the southern Gaza Strip.
Al-Qedra accused the Israeli army of destroying hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip and putting them out of service.
He said the moves would displace 800,000 people and deprive thousands of wounded, pregnant women, children, and chronic patients of health services.
Al-Qedra stressed that hospitals in southern Gaza are "powerless in the face of the huge numbers of infections and are trying to differentiate between cases to save their lives with the limited clinical, medical, and human capabilities available."
According to a Guardian report, the number of individuals killed by the airstrikes and the roughly 2 million displaced people who have limited access to food, clean water, or sanitary facilities are reportedly driving up international resentment, even among Israel's close allies.
As the UN security council deliberated a new resolution calling for the cessation of hostilities to allow for greater flows of humanitarian aid under UN supervision, the UK and Germany—two of Israel's strongest allies—added their voices to calls for a reduction in violence by calling for a "sustainable ceasefire" over the weekend.
On Tuesday, UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron urged Israel to take a "much more surgical, clinical, and targeted approach" in dealing with Hamas.
The US appears to be growing more and more isolated in its steadfast support for a military campaign that is now entering its eleventh week.
Since October 7, Israel has been launching a large-scale war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip after Hamas's unprecedented attack on southern Israel, which claimed the lives of about 1,200 Israelis, according to the Israeli authorities.
(With UNI/Xinhua inputs)