Gaza Death Toll Surpasses 8,000, Palestinian Health Ministry Says
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The number of people killed during Israeli strikes on Gaza since October 7 has risen to 8,005, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah said Sunday, drawing the data from sources in the Hamas-controlled enclave.
Nearly three-quarters (73%) of those killed are from vulnerable populations, including children, women and elderly people, according to the ministry’s report.
More than 20,000 people have been injured, the ministry added.
The reported death toll includes 116 medical personnel, as many hospitals have been hit by military strikes. Twelve hospitals and 32 primary care centers are out of service due to strikes or a lack of fuel.
In an earlier update, the ministry said 24 hospitals in northern Gaza, with a combined capacity of 2,000 beds, had been told to evacuate.
Touching the side of his neck gingerly, 30-year-old Withawat Kunwong reveals a jagged network of scars he received after being attacked at a poultry farm where he had been working in southern Israel.
The wound, Kunwong says, is a painful reminder of the fear and trauma he endured on October 7 when thousands of Hamas fighters broke through Israel’s border defenses in an unprecedented surprise attack.
The farm he had been working on was located in the Holit kibbutz, an agrarian community near the Gaza Strip. He was livestreaming from the farm when loud explosions were heard and thick black plumes of smoke rose into the air as rockets flew overheard.
He recalled hiding for hours that day but was discovered by a man he recalled as being a Palestinian dressed in civilian clothes who tried to cut his throat with a kitchen knife, after he “refused to surrender. A savage fight ensued.
After the violent struggle with his attacker, Kunwong was left for dead, heavily bleeding from the wound in his throat. He was eventually found and cared for by other migrant workers. He managed to survive, he believes, because the knife had been blunt and broken.
“Civil order” is deteriorating in Gaza after weeks of siege and bombardment, with people breaking into warehouses to take survival essentials, according to United Nations agencies.
The UN World Food Programme said some of its aid supplies were looted in Gaza and warned of “growing hunger and desperation” in a news release Sunday. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said earlier Sunday that “thousands” of people had broken into some of its warehouses and distribution centers in the central and southern areas of the strip, “taking wheat flour and other basic survival items like hygiene supplies.”
Here’s what you need to know:
- Emergency meeting: The United Arab Emirates, the only Arab country with a seat in the UN Security Council, will seek a binding resolution from other members for an “immediate humanitarian pause” in the fighting in Gaza during an emergency meeting Monday, sources said. Earlier this month, the United States vetoed a draft resolution at the council that called for a humanitarian pause.
- Hospital hit: Israeli airstrikes have “caused extensive damage to hospital departments and exposed residents and patients to suffocation” at the Al-Quds Hospital, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Sunday, accusing Israel of “deliberately” launching the airstrikes next to Gaza City’s second-largest hospital “with the aim of forcing the medical staff, displaced people, and patients to evacuate.” It also said it received a warning Sunday from Israel to immediately evacuate the hospital ahead of possible bombardment, which the World Health Organization has said would be “impossible” without endangering patients’ lives.
- Israeli advance: Israeli troops in a video taken Saturday, are seen putting an Israeli flag on a Gaza resort hotel’s roof. CNN geolocated the video to an area just over 2 miles [about 3 kilometers] from the Gaza-Israel border. It’s one of the first glimpses into where Israeli ground forces have been, and what they’ve been doing, during the expanded ground operations in Gaza. A communications blackout in the enclave has significantly hampered the flow of information out of it, though providers said service was gradually being restored Sunday.
An angry crowd in Russia’s mostly Muslim region of Dagestan stormed an airport where a flight from Israel arrived on Sunday, forcing authorities to close the facility and divert flights.
Clashes left at least 10 people injured, including two people in critical condition, according to a statement by the Dagestan Health Ministry late Sunday.
According to Russian state media TASS, “those gathered oppose the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”
The Makhachkala Uytash Airport (MCX) was temporarily closed and flights were diverted, according to a statement from the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency, saying “unknown persons” broke into the facility.
The Red Wing Airlines flight from Tel Aviv arrived Sunday at 7:17 p.m. local time, according to Flight Aware, and was quickly surrounded by protesters upon landing.
Multiple videos posted on social media showed a crowd of people inside the airport and on the runway, some waving the Palestinian flag, others forcing their way through closed doors in the international terminal.
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