Gaza Death Toll Surpasses 65,000 Amid Growing Genocide Accusations Against Israel

More than 65,000 Pales­tini­ans are con­firmed to have been killed, as Israeli troops and tanks push deep­er into Gaza City today.

Israel’s mil­i­tary said that air force and artillery units had struck the city over 150 times in the last few days, ahead of ground troops mov­ing in.

The death count in Gaza has reached 65,062, with anoth­er 165,697 wound­ed, since Hamas’s Octo­ber 7, 2023, attack, accord­ing to the Health Min­istry, which is part of the Hamas-run gov­ern­ment.

The fig­ures are seen as a reli­able esti­mate by the UN and many inde­pen­dent experts, who also declared a geno­cide in the enclave yes­ter­day.

A com­mis­sion of UN experts found Israel was com­mit­ting geno­cide in the Pales­tin­ian enclave. Israel denies the alle­ga­tion.

‘What we are wit­ness­ing in Gaza is not only an unprece­dent­ed human­i­tar­i­an cat­a­stro­phe, but what the UN Com­mis­sion of Inquiry has now con­clud­ed is a geno­cide,’ a state­ment read.

‘States must use every avail­able polit­i­cal, eco­nom­ic, and legal tool at their dis­pos­al to inter­vene. Rhetoric and half mea­sures are not enough. This moment demands deci­sive action.’

Mean­while, Pales­tini­ans are flee­ing the city – some by car, oth­ers on foot. Israel opened anoth­er cor­ri­dor south of Gaza City for two days begin­ning on Wednes­day to allow more peo­ple to evac­u­ate.

More than half of the Pales­tini­ans killed in overnight Israeli strikes were in famine-strick­en Gaza City, includ­ing a child and his moth­er who died in their apart­ment in the Shati refugee camp.

The Israeli mil­i­tary said it was look­ing into the strikes, but in the past, it has accused Hamas of build­ing mil­i­tary infra­struc­ture inside civil­ian areas.

An esti­mat­ed one mil­lion Pales­tini­ans were liv­ing in the Gaza City region before warn­ings to evac­u­ate began ahead of the offen­sive, and the Israeli mil­i­tary esti­mates 350,000 peo­ple have left the city.

The UN esti­mates that more than 238,000 Pales­tini­ans of some one mil­lion liv­ing in the city have fled north­ern Gaza over the past month. Hun­dreds of thou­sands more have stayed behind.

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led mil­i­tants stormed into south­ern Israel, killing around 1,200 peo­ple, most­ly civil­ians, and abduct­ing 251 oth­ers. 

Forty-eight hostages, few­er than half believed to be alive, remain in Gaza.