Gaza deaths exceed 25,000 as Israel pushes offensive

The Palestinian Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip has announced that the death toll from Israel’s aggression against the besieged coastal territory has surpassed 25,000, as the occupying regime’s war rages on into a fourth month.

The ministry made the remarks in a statement on Sunday, saying Israel’s relentless bombardment and ground offensive have killed at least 25,105 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, since the start of the aggression.

Earlier in the day, witnesses said Israeli boats had bombarded Gaza City and other areas in the northern part of the blockaded territory.

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas also reported heavy combat in the north.

The Government Media Office in Gaza also noted that Israel’s continued artillery shelling on the southern city of Khan Yunis, the Tal Al-Zaatar area of Gaza, and the north has made it impossible to transfer the dead and injured to the hospitals, adding that “Dozens are still under the rubble.”

The Israeli military claimed it had “eliminated a number of militants” in Khan Yunis and killed 15 fighters in northern Gaza over the past day.

The Israeli regime waged the war on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s atrocities against Palestinians.

More than 100 days into the campaign, the regime has achieved no objectives despite killing more than 25,000 people.

The Tel Aviv regime has also imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food, and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.

UN agencies have warned better aid access is needed urgently as famine and disease loom.

West Bank raid

Meanwhile, the Israeli military says it has demolished two Palestinian-owned houses in the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil, as violence surges in the occupied territories.

The military claimed that the houses belonged to two Palestinian gunmen who attacked a road between al-Quds and Bethlehem in November.

Palestine’s official Wafa news agency also reported clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinians in a village south of the West Bank city of Jenin as well as the towns of Aroura and Qalqilya.

Israeli forces have recently been conducting overnight raids and killings in the northern occupied West Bank, mainly in the cities of Jenin and Nablus, where new groups of Palestinian resistance fighters have been formed.

Israel has intensified its attacks against Palestinians throughout the West Bank since October 7, when it launched a devastating war on the besieged Gaza Strip.

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