No let-up in Israeli bombardment as martyrs' toll increases to 9,061 in Gaza
GAZA, Palestine (AFP) - The Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip said Thursday the martyrs' toll there since the start of Israel's war against Hamas had surpassed 9,000.
The ministry said 9,061 had been killed since the war began with the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. Of these, 3,760 were children and an additional 32,000 had been wounded.
Hundreds more were wounded and foreign passport holders hoped to escape the war-torn Gaza Strip. Ambulances were set to rush several dozen patients to Egyptian hospitals, and about 400 foreigners or dual nationals were expected to escape as the southern Rafah crossing was due to open for a second day, said border officials on both sides.
A blast hit the town of Rafah early Thursday, rattling strained nerves as families were lining up, desperate to escape through Gaza's only exit not controlled by Israel. Egypt said that eventually it hoped to help evacuate 7,000 foreigners from more than 60 countries from the densely crowded territory of 2.4 million people that has endured weeks of sustained bombardment. Heavy ground battles flared again overnight in northern Gaza as Israel has sought to destroy Hamas over the bloody October 7 attacks, the worst in the country's 75-year-history, which it says claimed 1,400 lives.
Some 332 Israeli soldiers have died since October 7, most in the Hamas attacks, Israel says, and gruelling urban warfare lies ahead as its forces advance deeper into Gaza, where Hamas is fighting from a tunnel network spanning hundreds of kilometres (miles).
'Whole families killed'
Although the United States backs Israel in ruling out a ceasefire now, President Joe Biden said he would support a humanitarian "pause" to help get the hostages out of Gaza.
The long-blockaded coastal strip has been under a total Israeli siege that has cut off water, food, electricity, fuel and medical supplies. A total of 227 aid trucks have so far entered under a US-brokered deal, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, an amount aid groups say falls far short of meeting the desperate need.
Special concern has focused on repeated heavy strikes on Gaza's largest refugee camp – densely populated Jabalia, north of Gaza City – where explosions brought down residential buildings and left giant craters on Tuesday and Wednesday. Gaza's Hamas-ruled government said 195 were killed in Israeli strikes on Jabalia, a figure AFP could not independently verify.
AFP has witnessed hundreds of rescuers desperately clawing through the rubble and twisted metal in frantic attempts to bring out survivors and extract bodies, with emergency responders saying "whole families" had died.
The wounded were rushed away by cart, motorcycle and ambulance as anguished wails and blaring sirens filled the dusty air. But Gaza's hospitals have been overwhelmed and run short of medical supplies and even electricity. More than 20,000 people in Gaza are wounded, says aid group Doctors Without Borders.
