Gaza Strip: The Gaza Health Ministry says 2,329 Palestinians have been killed since the latest fighting erupted, making this the deadliest of the five Gaza wars for Palestinians.
The death toll on Sunday surpassed that of the third war between Israel and Hamas, in the summer of 2014, when 2,251 Palestinians, including 1,462 civilians, were killed, according to UN figures.
That war lasted six weeks, and 74 people were killed on the Israeli side, including six civilians.
The current war erupted a week ago when Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel in a shocking surprise attack. More than 1,300 Israelis have been killed in the initial, wide-ranging assault and in rocket attacks from Gaza. The overwhelming majority were civilians.
For Israel, this is the deadliest war since the 1973 conflict with Egypt and Syria.
Meanwhile, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has said that it will launch a coordinated attack by land, air and sea on Hamas targets in Gaza and asked civilians to move to safer areas south of the Wadi Gaza as soon as possible. “We are preparing to attack Gaza by “air, sea and land,” Israeli military spokesman Richard Hecht said, urging Gazans not to delay in evacuating to south.
Israel has asked around 1.1 million Gazans – nearly half of the total population of the Gaza Strip – to flee their homes and move to the southern areas. The United Nations has asked Israel to withdraw the mass evacuation order, warning “devastating humanitarian consequences”. The WHO also echoed the UN and said evacuation of more than a million Gazans is not possible in such a short span of time and that relocating hospitalised people would mean a “death sentence” to them.
Agencies

  Gaza, Palestine

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