The Palestinian death toll in Israel's ongoing war in Gaza climbed to at least 31,490 on Friday as the conflict drags on for over five months.
The latest toll includes at least 149 deaths in the previous 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 73,439 people have been wounded in Gaza since Israel launched its war on Oct. 7.
"The Israeli occupation (forces) committed 13 massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, leaving 149 martyrs and 300 injured during the past 24 hours," a Gaza Health Ministry statement said.
"Many people are still trapped under rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them," it added.
Flouting an International Court of Justice (ICJ) provisional ruling, Israel continues its onslaught on the Gaza Strip.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion, which Tel Aviv says caused nearly 1,160 deaths.
The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the U.N.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the ICJ. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
Hostilities have continued unabated, however, and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe.
