The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that the death toll from the Israeli raids on the Strip had risen to 7,326 Palestinians, including 3,038 children, 1,726 women and 414 elderly people, while a UN official warned of a humanitarian catastrophe facing 2.2 million Palestinians living in the Strip.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced on Friday that the death toll from the Israeli raids on the Strip since October 7 had risen to 7,326 Palestinians, including 3,038 children, 1,726 women, and 414 elderly people.
This came during a press conference by Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra, from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
Al-Qudra said, “The toll of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip amounted to 7,326 martyrs, including 3,038 children, 1,726 women, and 414 elderly people, in addition to 18,967 citizens sustaining various injuries since October 7.”
He pointed out that "the Israeli occupation committed 41 massacres in the past hours, claiming the lives of 298 martyrs, the majority of whom were displaced to the southern Gaza Strip, which the Israeli occupation claims is safe."
Al-Qudra accused Israel of "deliberately committing 772 massacres against families," adding: "We received 1,700 reports of missing persons, including 940 children who are still under the rubble."
Targeting the health system
Al-Qudra revealed that "Israeli violations against the health system led to the martyrdom of 104 medical personnel and the destruction of 25 ambulances and their out of service."
He said, "The Israeli occupation deliberately targeted 57 health institutions, and put 12 hospitals and 32 primary care centers out of service, as a result of the targeting or failure to bring in fuel."
Al-Qudra continued, "The continuation of the trickle-down policy of bringing in medical aid does not help the health system and leads to more victims."
He warned that "the failure to immediately bring fuel to all hospitals threatens the lives of thousands of wounded and sick people who need life-saving services."
He considered that Israel "is using the failure to bring medical supplies and fuel to hospitals as an additional weapon to expand the Gaza Holocaust."
"Collective punishment"
For her part, spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, confirmed that there is no safe place in the Gaza Strip as a result of the devastating Israeli raids that have been continuing for 21 days.
In a press conference, she pointed to significant damage to the infrastructure in densely populated Gaza and loss of life, describing what is happening as “incompatible with international humanitarian laws.”
The UN spokeswoman used the term "collective punishment" due to Israel's practice of cutting off water, food, fuel and electricity supplies to the Strip for three weeks.
She said: “2.2 million people in Gaza are facing a humanitarian catastrophe Israel must stop the collective punishment it is practicing on the people of Gaza. Collective punishment is a humanitarian catastrophe.”
The representative of the World Health Organization in Palestine, Richard Peppercorn, participated in the press conference via video technology, and confirmed the displacement of 1.4 million Palestinians in Gaza from their homes.
He pointed out that the safe arrival of food, fuel, water and medical materials to Gaza requires a humanitarian ceasefire.
For the twenty-first day, Israel continues to launch intensive raids on Gaza, leaving thousands of civilians martyred and wounded, and cutting off its supplies of water, electricity, food and medicine, which sparked local and international warnings of a double humanitarian catastrophe, in parallel with intense Israeli raids and arrests in cities and towns of the occupied West Bank.
In response to “daily Israeli attacks against the Palestinian people and their sanctities,” Hamas and other Palestinian factions in Gaza launched Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” on October 7, at the beginning of which they stormed Israeli settlements and military sites around the Gaza Strip.
Amid unprecedented bombing, Gaza is “isolated from the world” after communications and the Internet were cut off
Palestinian media confirmed that the Internet was completely cut off in the Gaza Strip, while the Israeli army continues its intense and “unprecedented” air, sea and land bombardment of all areas of the Strip.
On Friday evening, many areas in the Gaza Strip faced a complete communications blackout amid “unprecedented” Israeli bombing, according to Palestinian media.
The Palestinian Al-Aqsa Channel reported, “The occupation army is intensifying its air, sea and ground bombardment on all areas of Gaza in an unprecedented manner.”
She explained that at the same time, “communications were completely cut off in the Gaza Strip.”
On Friday evening, the Gaza Strip was subjected to heavy Israeli bombardment, according to live footage broadcast by TRT.
Hebrew media said that the raids launched on Gaza now are the most violent since the start of the war.
For the twenty-first day, Israel continues to launch intensive raids on Gaza, leaving thousands of civilians martyred and wounded, and cutting off its supplies of water, electricity, food and medicine, which sparked local and international warnings of a double humanitarian catastrophe, in parallel with intense Israeli raids and arrests in cities and towns of the occupied West Bank.
In response to “daily Israeli attacks against the Palestinian people and their sanctities,” Hamas and other Palestinian factions in Gaza launched Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” on October 7, at the beginning of which they stormed Israeli settlements and military sites around the Gaza Strip.
Media: 8 Indians sentenced to death in Qatar on charges of spying for Israel
An Indian and Qatari source reported that a court in Qatar yesterday, Thursday, sentenced eight former Indian Navy officials to death on charges of spying for Israel.
Neither New Delhi nor Doha officially announced the charges against the eight who were arrested in August 2022. In India, a government official familiar with Doha’s position said that the Qatari authorities accused them of spying for Israel.
The source familiar with the case in Qatar told Reuters that the eight Indians can appeal the death sentence, adding that they are accused of spying for Israel. The two sources spoke about the issue on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case.
A spokesman for the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to a request for comment on what the two sources said, and the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not yet provided a response.
There has been no response yet from the Israeli Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, which oversees the Israeli intelligence services.
The ruling comes as Doha attempts to negotiate with the Islamic Resistance Movement "Hamas" for the release of more than 200 people who were detained during its attack on October 7 in Israel, which launches air strikes on Gaza in response.
The issue of the eight Indians, who were working on a project to build a submarine for a private company affiliated with the Qatari authorities, could become a source of major diplomatic irritation for New Delhi, which relies heavily on Qatar to meet its natural gas needs.
The Indian government said on Thursday that it was “deeply shocked” by the ruling, adding that it was “exploring all legal options,” noting that it attached “great importance to this case” and would discuss “the ruling with the Qatari authorities.”
“It is inappropriate to make any further statements at this stage” due to the “confidential nature of the proceedings,” she said in a statement Thursday.
Jairam Ramesh, spokesman for the opposition Indian Congress party, urged the Indian government on Thursday to "use its diplomatic and political influence with the Qatari government" to do its best to release them as soon as possible.