Israel kills 8 Gazans to push genocidal war's death toll past 73,000
A Palestinian man stands amid destroyed shelters at the site of an Israeli strike on the al-Mawassi camp in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, June 29, 2026. (AFP Photo)


The death toll in Israel's genocidal war on Gaza crossed 73,000 on Tuesday after it killed another eight Palestinians over the past 24 hours in the besieged territory, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

In its daily statistical report, the ministry said Gaza hospitals received eight bodies and 26 injured in the past 24 hours as the Israeli military continued to violate the October 2025 cease-fire through shelling and gunfire across different parts of the territory.

Several victims remain trapped under the rubble and on the roads, with ambulance and civil defense crews still unable to reach them, the ministry added.

According to the ministry, the death toll from Israeli violations of the truce has risen to 1,053, while 3,406 others have been injured. It added that the overall toll from Israel's genocide has reached 73,066 killed and 173,514 wounded.

Besides the casualties, the campaign caused widespread destruction, damaging about 90% of Gaza's civilian infrastructure, with the U.N. estimating reconstruction costs at around $70 billion.

Two children were among the eight people killed in Israeli strikes in southern and central Gaza Monday. The attacks also wounded at least 20 others, according to health officials and emergency services.

In Khan Younis, a strike hit a tent in the al-Mawasi neighborhood after a warning call, killing a 23-year-old mother and her one-year-old daughter west of Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital.

Another strike on the town of Qarara, northwest of the city, earlier in the day killed a 31-year-old man, according to Nasser Hospital. The hospital said he had married only a few months ago and left behind a pregnant wife.

In a separate incident in the same area, a strike hit a tent sheltering displaced people along the coastal area of Khan Younis, killing two people and wounding 13 others, according to Nasser Hospital and the Palestinian Red Crescent.

The wounded were transferred to a field hospital run by the Palestinian Red Crescent in Al-Mawasi.

In central Gaza, a drone strike hit a tent in Deir al-Balah, killing at least three Palestinians, including an 8-year-old boy and his grandfather, medical officials said.

Health authorities in the coastal enclave said the drone strike hit a neighborhood in Deir al-Balah, one of the least damaged towns in central Gaza.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said the fatalities were Hassan al-Hanagra and his 8-year-old grandchild, Malik Abu Shawish, along with another man.

Abu Shawish, whose parents are divorced, was visiting his mother’s tent at the time of the strike and his mother was among seven people wounded in the strike, hospital officials said.

A strike in southern Gaza on Sunday killed Zaher Abu Salem, the Israeli military said, describing him as a member of Islamic Jihad involved in the Oct. 7 incursion.

A total of four people were killed Sunday in a flurry of strikes around Gaza, including a 13-year-old girl, Eileen al-Farra, who was hit by shrapnel from Israeli tank shelling and was buried Monday.

While the heaviest fighting has subsided since a cease-fire took hold in October, Israeli forces have carried out near-daily strikes, killing 1,045 Palestinians, including more than 360 women and children, according to health officials in Gaza.

Israel says it is targeting Palestinian resistance groups, often saying they were planning attacks on Israeli troops who hold more than 60% of the Gaza Strip. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed in militant attacks since the cease-fire.

The Gaza Health Ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces raided locations throughout the occupied West Bank, including near Ramallah, where the Palestinian Health Ministry reported a 15-year-old from Jerusalem was killed by a gunshot to the head.

Emergency crews transported Amir Jaber to the hospital from the al-Bireh area after attempting to resuscitate him at the scene, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said. It also reported two injured by Israeli fire in a raid near Hebron, the West Bank's most populous city.

The Israeli military did not comment immediately.

The raid near Ramallah – the Palestinians' administrative capital in the West Bank – was among half a dozen reported across the territory Monday by WAFA, the Palestinian news agency.

At least 59 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers and soldiers in the West Bank this year, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported last week.