The Gaza Health Ministry reported Wednesday that the Palestinian death toll in the 20-month Israeli attacks on the enclave has surpassed 55,000, with women and children accounting for more than half of the casualties.
This grim milestone marks the ongoing conflict that began with Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, incursion on southern Israel.
Israel maintains it targets only Hamas, blaming civilian deaths on the group for embedding its members within densely populated areas.
The ministry says 55,104 people have been killed since the start of the war and 127,394 wounded.
Many more are believed to be buried under rubble or in areas inaccessible to local medics.
Israeli forces have destroyed vast areas of Gaza, displaced about 90% of its population and in recent weeks, have transformed more than half of the coastal territory into a military buffer zone that includes the now mostly uninhabited southern city of Rafah.
A two-and-a-half-month blockade imposed by Israel after it ended a cease-fire with Hamas raised fears of famine and was slightly eased in May.
The launch of a new Israeli- and U.S.-backed aid system has been marred by chaos and violence, and the U.N. says it has struggled to bring in food because of Israeli restrictions, a breakdown of law and order, and widespread looting.
Israel accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid, but the U.N. and aid groups deny there is any systematic diversion of aid.
Hamas has suffered major military setbacks, and Israel says it has killed more than 20,000 of its members, without providing evidence.
55 hostages are still being held in Gaza.
The attacks began following Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, incursion on southern Israel, which killed 1,200 people and abducted 251 hostages.
More than half the captives have been released in cease-fires or other deals.
Israeli forces have rescued eight and recovered the remains of dozens more.
Israel’s military campaign, one of the deadliest and most destructive since World War II, has transformed large parts of cities into mounds of rubble.
Hundreds of thousands of people are living in squalid tent camps and unused schools, and the health system has been gutted, even as it copes with waves of wounded from Israeli strikes.
