Israel and Hamas Hostilities Continue, Nearly 2,000 Killed

The new escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas has left 922 Palestinians dead in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign and Expatriate Affairs.

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The Palestinian Ministry of Health indicated in its latest bulletin that of the dead, 260 are children and 230 women and that some 4,650 people have been injured so far.

The text noted that some 22 families have been wiped out, six health workers and eight journalists have been killed while 15 other members of medical teams and 20 other reporters have been injured.

The Israeli aggression has targeted Palestinian residential neighborhoods, where gas, water and electricity supplies continue to be cut off, marking the beginning of a genocide of more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the country's health authorities.

The director of the Dura hospital in Heborn, Mohammed Rabe', confirmed that several Israeli soldiers stormed the site and fired live bullets and tear gas canisters that caused suffocation of patients and accompanying persons.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry also accused Israel of using white phosphorus in its munitions in the Al Karama area in northern Gaza, a substance banned by international conventions.

Humanitarian organizations have denounced that air strikes are reducing residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure to rubble, causing the death of entire families. 

Some 111 civil society organizations issued a statement today demanding an end to the siege of Gaza and the release of prisoners.  "The ongoing Israeli occupation of disproportionate attacks against protected civilians in the Gaza Strip constitutes a war crime. The Israeli occupation, as the occupying power, has a legal responsibility to ensure the protection of the lives and well-being of protected Palestinian civilians in times of war," the text states.

The recent surge in violence comes four days of clashes after the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement launched a large-scale attack on the Hebrew nation on October 7. 

For its part, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stated that more than 1,000 citizens have been killed and more than 2,800 injured, in addition to 50 confirmed hostages or missing persons.