More than 10,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the conflict between Israel and Islamist group Hamas, which governs the enclave, began a month ago, Gazan health officials said Monday.
More than 70% of the 10,022 deaths confirmed by Gaza’s health ministry are women, children and the elderly, while more than 25,400 people have been wounded since Israel began bombing the Gaza Strip in response to Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7.
Over 1,400 people were killed in Israel and more than 230 people were taken hostage when Hamas militants launched the surprise attack.
Health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra told a press conference that over 4,100 of the deaths were children.
The ministry said that 252 people have been killed in the last 24 hours in Israeli airstrikes on the enclave, some of which hit hospitals.
At least eight people were killed in attacks on a hospital complex in Gaza City, home to the Strip’s only psychiatric hospital, an ophthalmology center and the Rantisi pediatric hospital.
The Hamas-controlled ministry also accused Israel of targeting bakeries where people queue to buy food, further aggravating the food crisis, and of preventing the evacuation of wounded from the besieged Gaza City to the south of the Strip.
The Israeli army, on the other hand, said Monday it had opened a new safe corridor for civilians who remain in the north of the Strip to move south.
“For your safety, take advantage of the moment to move south, beyond Wadi Gaza,” Avichay Adraee, the Arabic-language spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces, said on his X account (formerly Twitter).
In the first week of the conflict, the army had urged the entire population of the northern part of the Strip – more than one million people – to move to the south, where it has said that its military operations are more limited.
However, a month into the war, indiscriminate Israeli shelling has continued throughout the enclave, including the south.
An estimated 400,000 Gazans still remain in the north, having found no safe routes or shelter in the south, where food, medicine and drinking water are also in short supply.
Israel also claimed to have opened this humanitarian corridor for several hours Sunday, although both Israeli troops and Hamas have accused each other of having attacked.
After consolidating their control over large parts of the northern Strip, Israeli army ground troops reached the Mediterranean coast Sunday from the center of the enclave, splitting it in two and tightening the siege on Gaza City. EFE
By Muhammad Hussain
