The number of Palestinian deaths since the Israeli invasion of Gaza has exceeded 73,000, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Sunday.
Israeli military operations continue despite a fragile and stalled ceasefire in force since October. Israel says it targets Hamas and other fighters who pose a threat. The Jewish state says it is responding to sporadic attacks against its army.
Nearly 1,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the ceasefire, according to the Health Ministry. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the truce.
The number of deaths since the start of the war now stands at 73,001, according to the Ministry of Health’s count. More than 173,200 people have been injured since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, following the attack by Hamas against Israel. This attack left some 1,200 dead, not including 251 hostages.
The Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records considered generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts. It does not distinguish between civilians and Hamas members, but indicates that women and children represent about half of all victims.
Israel says it is trying to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas because the militants operate in densely populated areas.
A stalled ceasefire
The US-brokered ceasefire agreement reached in October ended large-scale military operations and led to the return of all remaining hostages. But other elements of the agreement have stalled, with Hamas refusing to lay down its weapons and Israeli troops advancing into Gaza instead of withdrawing. Both sides accuse each other of violating the agreement, while maintaining that it is still in force.
Progress on all other issues — including reconstruction, the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the establishment of a new Palestinian government — is blocked by the impasse on disarming Hamas, said Nickolay Mladenov, the top diplomat charged with overseeing the ceasefire brokered by the United States in Gaza.
The war has displaced most of the Palestinian population of more than 2 million, left large portions of the territory in ruins and caused widespread shortages of food, medicine and other essentials at the crossing points into Gaza — all controlled by Israel except one — having been closed.
