Occupied Al-Quds: It has been six months since Israel launched its brutal assault on the Gaza Strip on October 7.
Israel shows no sign of stopping, as its allies continue to provide it with more weapons to use on Palestinians along with political support, and mediated talks have not led to a ceasefire.
Let’s take a look at the toll the Israeli attacks have taken on Gaza.
At least 33,137 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army in Gaza since the start of the war on October 7, the Ministry of Health in Gaza says.
Thousands more are missing under the rubble of collapsed buildings and infrastructure, and are presumed dead.
Children and women comprise the overwhelming majority of those killed, with Save the Children saying more than 13,800 children have been killed.
UNICEF, the United Nations fund for children, estimated that at least 17,000 Palestinian children are currently unaccompanied or separated from their parents in Gaza.
At least 75,815 people have been injured in Israeli attacks since the start of the war – about four out of every 100 people in Gaza.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said this week that some 1,000 children in Gaza have lost one or both of their legs.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Mon that a date has been set for a ground offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where about 1.4 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering.
Israeli troops withdrew on Sunday from Khan Younis, another city in the southern Gaza Strip, ending a key phase of the war. Defence officials said they are regrouping before a push into Rafah.
In response, Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zahry told that the invasion threat “raises questions about the purpose of resuming negotiations”.
Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City has been left “completely non-functional” after a deadly, weeks-long Israeli siege, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported in its latest update on Gaza.
The Palestinian death toll from the war has surpassed 33,200 with nearly 76,000 people wounded, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said on Monday. Women and children make up two-thirds of the dead.
France’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that pressure, and possibly sanctions, must be imposed on Israel to open crossings to get humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
“There must be levers of influence, and there are multiple levers, going up to sanctions, to let humanitarian aid cross checkpoints,” Stephane Sejourne said.
Turkey restricted the export of 54 of its products to Israel after Israel rejected a Turkish request for its military cargo planes to join a humanitarian aid operation for Gaza.
Germany is facing charges at the top United Nations court for allegedly “facilitating the commission of genocide” against Palestinians in Gaza by providing its ally Israel with military and political help.
In Syria, Israeli warplanes targeted military posts and infrastructure on Monday in the Mahaja area.
Qatar’s embassy in Washington rejected a statement by James Comer, chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform in the United States House of Representatives, that “inaccurately claims” Doha has paid Hamas “$30m per month since 2018”.
Also in the US, former President Donald Trump said any Jewish person who votes for the incumbent, Joe Biden, in November’s presidential election “does not love Israel and frankly, should be spoken to”.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin asked Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant about what the Israeli military is doing to investigate the “tragic strike” that killed seven aid workers in Gaza last week, according to a US Defense Department readout.
Disinformation is further compounding Gaza’s crisis, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a post on X, calling for international journalists be allowed entry into the enclave.
