GAZA: Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday that around 34,971 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory during the war between Hamas and Israel. The Ministry said in a statement that the tally included around 28 deaths in the last 24 hours.
It further said that more than 78,641 people including women and children have been injured in the Gaza Strip since the war broke out when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.
In a major development Israel ordered new evacuations in Gaza’s city of Rafah on Saturday as it prepared to expand its operation, saying it was also moving into an area in northern Gaza.
AP reported that fighting is escalating across Gaza with heavy clashes between Israeli army and Palestinian groups on the outskirts of Rafah city, leaving the crucial adjacent aid crossings inaccessible and forcing more than 110,000 people to flee north of Rafaha city.
The UN and other aid agencies have also warned for weeks that an Israeli operation on Rafah, which borders Egypt near to the main aid entry points, would cripple aid operations and cause a disastrous increase in civilian casualties.
On the other hand, Senior Communications Manager Jonathan Fowler stated that two Israeli arson assaults and increasing protest demonstrations forced the UN Palestine refugee agency, UNRWA, to temporarily close its office in occupied East Jerusalem last Thursday, but its vital work would continue as war rages in the Gaza Strip and settlers’ violence increases in the Occupied West Bank.
