– 1,524 children and 1,000 women killed
– Hospitals mostly offline, basic healthcare facilities failing
– UN report says half of Gazans are now homeless
World News Desk: At least 3,785 Palestinians have been killed and 12,493 wounded in Israeli strikes on Gaza since October 7, the health ministry in Gaza said on Thursday.
Of the total death toll, 1,524 were children and 1,000 were women, ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra told a press conference.
Al-Qudra added that 44 health workers had been killed in Gaza, four hospitals were out of service, and 14 basic healthcare services had stopped functioning.
“There are no medicine stocks in any of the hospitals in Gaza,” Al-Qudra added, calling on the international community to expedite the delivery of aid to Gaza.
People who had come to the south of the Gaza Strip after obeying Israel’s order for civilians to flee Gaza City in the north, said nowhere was safe.
In Gaza’s north, footage obtained by Reuters from the Jabaliya refugee camp showed residents digging with their bare hands inside a damaged building to free a small boy and girl trapped under masonry. The body of a man was hauled out of the ruins on a stretcher as residents tried to light up the site with torches on their mobile phones.
Elsewhere in Khan Younis, a man kissed the body of a small baby wrapped in a shroud before it was lowered into a grave. Mourners said four small children were buried there and three others at another site, among a family, were killed when a three-story building was hit.
The UN says around half of Gazans have been homeless, still trapped inside the enclave, one of the most densely populated places on earth.
The plight of Gaza civilians has enraged the Middle East, making it harder for Biden and other Western leaders to rally Arab allies to prevent the war from spreading.
On the eve of Biden’s visit, an explosion at a hospital in Gaza scuppered his plans to meet Arab leaders, who called off a summit with him. Palestinians blamed the explosion on an Israeli air strike; Israel said it was caused by a failed rocket launch by Palestinian fighters, and Biden said US evidence supported the Israeli account.
