GAZA CITY: Health officials in the Gaza Strip said on Monday that the death toll from the 14-month Israeli bombardment campaign has topped 45,000 people.
The Gaza Health Ministry said that more than half of the fatalities are women and children.
The Israeli military says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The Health Ministry said 45,028 people have been killed and 106,962 have been wounded since the start of the war in October 2023.
The ministry has said the real toll is higher because thousands of bodies are still buried under rubble or in areas that medics cannot access.
The latest war has been by far the deadliest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas, with the death toll now amounting to roughly 2 percent of Gaza’s entire pre-war population of about 2.3 million.
Israel claims Hamas is responsible for the civilian death toll because it operates from within civilian areas in the densely populated Gaza Strip. Rights groups and Palestinians say Israel has failed to take sufficient precautions to avoid civilian deaths.
The war began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
An Israeli strike killed at least 10 people, including a family of four, in Gaza City overnight, Palestinian medics said Monday.
The strike late Sunday hit a house in Gaza City’s eastern Shijaiyah neighbourhood, according to the Health Ministry’s emergency service.
Rescuers recovered the bodies of 10 people from under the rubble, including those of two parents and their two children, it said.
Meanwhile, US president-elect Donald Trump said that he had a “very good talk” with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, about the status of the war on Gaza.
“We discussed what is going to happen, and I’ll be very available on January 20, and we’ll see,” Trump said.
The two enjoyed a close relationship during Trump’s first term as president, but relations between the two seemed to sour after Netanyahu congratulated Biden on winning the 2020 US presidential election, the results of which Trump continues to dispute.
Relations appear to have warmed again after Trump was re-elected, with Netanyahu congratulating the US president “on history’s greatest comeback!”
Trump is also attempting to pack his administration with staunchly pro-Israel officials, who will need to be confirmed to their posts by the US Congress.
