At least 500 Palestinians were martyred in an Israel’s air strike on the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, bringing the death toll to at least 3,500 in Israeli bombardment.
Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza since October 7 is the worst the besieged Palestinian enclave has seen since Tel Aviv imposed a land, sea and air blockade in 2007.
Israel began its relentless airstrikes on Gaza after Hamas breached Israel’s high-tech security fence, which has enclosed 2.3 million Palestinians for 16 years, with gunmen crossing into several Israeli towns under a heavy barrage of rockets fired from Gaza.
Hamas officials said the coordinated attack was in response to Israel’s desecration of Al Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem and increased state-sanctioned Israeli settler violence across the occupied Palestinian territories.
At least 1,400 Israelis have been killed in Hamas’ “Al Asaq Flood” operation, according to Israeli officials and around 199 Israelis have been taken hostage by Hamas into Gaza, according to the United Nations Human Rights Office.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Israel to be at war and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant announced a totalblockade on the already besieged Gaza, cutting off all supplies of water, food, electricity, fuel, medicine and medical supplies to the civilian population.
“The number of killed is increasing. There are not enough body bags for the dead in Gaza,” the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has said.
Here is Israel’s war on Gaza in numbers:
Rising death toll in Gaza
At least 3,500 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza till now, according to health officials and over 12,000 have been wounded.
Save the Children said more than 1,000 children have been killed in the first 11 days of airstrikes on Gaza. The UK-based charity said one child has been killed every 15 minutes with children making up a third of total fatalities in Gaza.
The Gaza-based Ministry of Health has reported over 1,000 women killed. The ministry has said 64 percent of the casualties are women and children.
In the highest death toll of any single incident in Gaza, at least 500 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Al Ahli Arab Hospital on Tuesday in northern Gaza, Palestinian officials have said.
The hospital was also being used as a shelter for Palestinians displaced from their homes as a result of Israeli airstrikes.
The ministry said hundreds of other victims remained under the rubble.
Bombs dropped over Gaza
Seven days into Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, the Israeli Air Force said it had dropped “about 6,000 bombs against Hamas targets”, nearly matching the number of bombs the US used in Afghanistan in one year.
Israel’s indiscriminate attacks on residential areas have killed at least 47 families, consisting of over 500 individuals, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
By October 10, four days into Israel’s attack on Gaza, authorities said Israeli warplanes had destroyed at least 159 residential units across the enclave.
As of October 12, Israeli airstrikes had targeted markets, two hospitals and 20 United Nations Reliefs and Works Agency (UNRWA) facilities, including schools sheltering displaced civilians.
Displaced Palestinians in Gaza
More than 338,000 people have been forced to flee their homes the United Nations said and some 220,000 displaced people are sheltering in schools run by the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA.
Crackdown on occupied West Bank
As Israel began its bombardment on Gaza, it also cracked down on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli military raids into the occupied West Bank since October 7 have killed at least 70 Palestinians.
Nearly 700 Palestinians have been arrested in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.
Total blockade on Gaza continues
About 63 percent of people in Gaza rely on international groups to provide food and other means of support, according to UNRWA.
Under Israel’s total blockade on the enclave, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that crucial supplies were running dangerously low.
“It’s a dire situation in the Gaza Strip that we’re seeing evolve with food and water being in limited supply and quickly running out,” said Brian Lander, the deputy head of emergencies at WFP, which is based in Rome.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Israel’s cutting off of electricity to Gaza risks turning all hospitals in the enclave into morgues.
“As Gaza loses power, hospitals lose power, putting newborns in incubators and elderly patients on oxygen at risk. Kidney dialysis stops, and X-rays can’t be taken. Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues,” Fabrizio Carboni, the ICRC’s regional director for the Near and Middle East, said in a statement.
Relief groups are urging that an emergency corridor be established for the transfer of humanitarian aid.
