Gaza death toll tops 45,000 in 14 months of war
106,962 have been wounded since war began when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023
GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Monday that at least 45,028 people have been killed during more than 14 months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants.
The toll includes 52 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 106,962 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
Gaza’s civil defence agency earlier said Israeli strikes across the Palestinian territory on Sunday killed at least 40 people, including several children, an Al Jazeera TV cameraman and three rescuers.
Qatar-based news channel Al Jazeera said its cameraman Ahmed Al Louh was killed “in an Israeli bombardment” that targeted Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal confirmed Louh was killed in the strike that “targeted the Civil Defence site” in Nuseirat camp, also killing three members of the rescue agency.
The Israeli military confirmed in a statement it killed Louh, saying he was an Islamic Jihad member and “previously served as a platoon commander” for the militant group which has fought alongside Hamas in Gaza.
The military said the civil defence site was being used as a “command and control centre” by Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Israel’s military has repeatedly accused Al Jazeera journalists of links to Hamas or its ally Islamic Jihad.
Al Jazeera has fiercely denied the accusations and said Israel - which has passed a law to ban the network - has systematically targeted its employees in Gaza.
Louh is the fifth Al Jazeera journalist to be killed since the war in Gaza began, and the network’s office in the territory has been bombed.
Later on Sunday, Bassal told AFP that an Israeli strike on a school used as shelter by displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza’s main city killed at least 12 people, including a number of children.
“One missile hit the third floor of the school” in Khan Yunis, also injuring 35 people, Bassal said.
Contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was looking into the report.
Tent hit
Another strike on a house in Shujaiya, east of Gaza City, killed six people, according to the civil defence spokesman.
Bassal earlier told AFP that rescuers working through the night recovered the bodies of 18 people, including three children.
He also reported more dead in a strike on a house in central Gaza City and another that his a tent sheltering dozens of displaced people in Deir Al Balah in central Gaza.
AFP images showed distraught relatives mourning the bodies of loved ones at a hospital in Gaza City. Some corpses lay on the floor covered in blankets.
On Sunday, the military confirmed it had carried out strikes in the northern Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia areas.
“The troops struck dozens of terrorists from both the air and ground and additional terrorists were apprehended” in Beit Hanoun, it said.
“In Beit Lahia, troops eliminated terrorists and located and dismantled large quantities of weapons, including explosives and dozens of grenades,” Israel’s military said.
The statement did not specify when these operations took place.
The military also said it targeted a clinic in northern Gaza, accusing Hamas of using it as a “command and control centre” and storage site for weapons.