More than 43,000 Palestinians killed in war with Israel, health chiefs say

The number of Palestinians killed in the war in Gaza has passed 43,000, more than half of them women and children, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

The tally includes 96 dead who arrived at hospitals in Gaza over the past two days, the ministry said.

The grim milestone comes after Israeli troops launched an ongoing operation in northern Gaza that included a raid on a hospital over the weekend.

The military said it detained 100 suspected Hamas militants in a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya on Friday.

A total of 44 male staff were detained, according to the World Health Organisation.

Palestinian medical officials said the hospital, which was treating some 200 patients, was heavily damaged in the raid.

Israel has raided several hospitals in Gaza over the course of the war, saying Hamas and other militants use them for military purposes.

Palestinian medical officials deny those allegations and accuse the military of recklessly endangering civilians.

The Israeli military has called on Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza, where it has been waging a large offensive for more than three weeks.

The UN said earlier this month at least 400,000 people are still in northern Gaza and hunger is rampant as the amount of humanitarian aid reaching the north has plummeted over the past month.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities – who do not differentiate between militants and civilians, but say more than a half of these casualties were women and children.

The Israel-Hamas war began after Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others, on October 7 last year.

Israel’s government said it would continue its discussion with international mediators about a potential ceasefire deal in its war with Hamas, as the head of the Mossad spy agency returned from Qatar on Monday after taking part in the latest round of in-person talks.

David Barnea met the head of the CIA, Bill Burns, and the prime minister of Qatar in Doha, Israel’s prime minister’s office said in a brief statement.

“In the coming days, the discussions between the mediators and with Hamas will continue to examine the feasibility of talks and the continuation of attempts to advance a deal,” the statement said.

Washington and Qatar have been key mediators in the stalled negotiations between Israel and Hamas. Many of the militant group’s leaders are based in the Qatari capital.

The new round of talks was announced by the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week.

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s health ministry says the total toll over the past year there is over 2,600 killed and 12,200 injured.

The fighting in Lebanon has driven 1.2 million people from their homes, including more than 400,000 children, according to the United Nations children’s agency.

Israeli strikes killed at least 34 people in various locations in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley on Monday amid a surge of intensified airstrikes, Lebanese state media reported.

In the town of Sahl Allak in Baalbeck province, 16 people were killed, with the casualty toll expected to rise as rescue operations continue, according to the National News Agency.

In Ramm, also in Baalbeck, an Israeli airstrike killed nine people, including a mother and her four children, and left one other person wounded, according to NNA.

Another strike on the outskirts of Gouraud Barracks Camp in the Baalbeck province, where some Palestinian refugees live, killed six people and wounded 17 others.

In Hellaniyeh, two people were killed and eight wounded, while in Younine, also in Baalbeck, two more people were killed and six others were injured, NNA reported.

Baalbeck’s Mayor Bachir Khodr described the attacks as “the most violent day in Baalbeck since the beginning of the aggression”, in a post on X.

Israeli strikes have killed much of Hezbollah’s top leadership since fighting ramped up in September.

On Monday, the South African legal team delivered a nearly 5,000-page document to the United Nations’ top court, the latest step in a case the country brought accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

The document, which the International Court of Justice will not make public until a later stage in the proceedings, puts forth the “main case” that Israel has a “special intent to commit genocide”, according to a statement from South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Israel has fiercely denied the allegations. The government called the case “blood libel” when South Africa launched the complaint in December 2023.