Health officials say the number of Palestinians killed since Israel began its war with Gaza in October 2023 has exceeded 50,000.
Gaza’s health ministry said on Sunday that at least 50,021 Palestinians have been killed and 113,274 have been injured since Israel began attacking besieged territory after an attack led by Palestinian group Hamas on October 7, 2023.
The death toll is expected to rise as Israeli forces hit a surgical building inside Khan Eunice’s Nasser Medical Complex late Sunday, causing a major fire, the Ministry of Health said.
Singh Bett, the Israeli Army and intelligence reporting agency, confirmed the attack in a statement, claiming that their forces targeted members of the “important” Hamas, a hospital, one of Gaza’s largest medical facilities.
Previously, medical sources told Al Jazeera that at least 46 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on Sunday.
Israel rekindled its war with Gaza after refusing to enter the second phase of its ceasefire agreement it signed with Hamas in January.
Entering Phase 2, Israel demanded that it withdraw troops from Gaza. Gaza is a condition agreed to in transactions mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States. Even in Phase 1, which came into effect on January 19th and saw the release of prisoners in exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, Israel killed more than 150 Palestinians in Gaza.
A report from Gaza city in northern Gaza, Hani Mahmoud of Al Jazeera said the announced death toll was a “very harsh, terrifying milestone.”
“For the record, the 50,000 figure is just a conservative estimate. These are only people registered in health facilities across the Gaza Strip. There are many who are buried unregistered and trapped under a mountain of tiled rub,” Mahmoud said.
“Of the 50,000+ murders, 17,000 are children. The entire generation has been wiped out. These children would have influenced how their society progressed – politically, economically, intellectually,” he added.
The Gaza media office said a study published in the Lancet Journal last July said the accumulation effect of Israeli war against Gaza could mean that it could reach more than 186,000 people, but the Gaza media office said the confirmed death toll doesn’t include more than 11,000.
Israel has repeatedly argued that the attacks are carefully targeting Hamas members, but the number of civilians killed tells a different story, analysts say.
“Israel has made these types of unfounded claims for the past 17 months, and this is not fully supported by ground evidence,” Omar Rahman, a fellow at the Council of Middle East, told Al Jazeera.
“If anything, the evidence often refers to the intentional targeting of civilian and private infrastructure, which explains the massive number of children’s deaths.”
Forced evacuation
Meanwhile, Israeli forces on Sunday called on residents of Rafa, a city in southern Gaza, to force evacuate as their troops launched operations in the area.
Israeli forces said they were surrounding the neighborhood of Rafah’s Tar az Sultan.
Israel has been accused of repeatedly targeting so-called “safe zones” and has been forced to evacuate people.
Israeli forces have also announced that they are running operations in Beit Hanoon, north of Gaza.
Last week, Israel resumed its attacks and shattered the ceasefire after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that it would put Hamas pressure on him to pursue a military path to pressure him to accept a contract to release the remaining prisoners that were not exchanged in the January ceasefire agreement.
Hamas repeats that if Israel agrees to enter phase two of the previous ceasefire contract, it is ready to release all prisoners.
Since Tuesday, Israel has killed more than 600 people, including more than 200 children.
Previously, Hamas announced that Sarah Al-Baldawir’s official had been killed in an Israeli attack on Khan Eunice’s tent early on Sunday.
Israeli forces’ attacks are as Gaza has been upset from a complete Israeli blockade since early March, causing serious shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel in the territory. Rights group Amnesty International said it was “cruel and illegal” to cut off the power supply to Gaza’s desalination plants.
Rights groups, aid agencies, and several countries, including France, Germany and the UK, are calling on Israel to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.
