The Palestinian Health Ministry reported Thursday that the official death toll from the Israeli assault on the entire civilian population of Gaza since October 7, 2023 has reached 40,005, though the actual death toll is likely much higher. At least 92,401 others have been wounded. Of those killed, 13,200 were children, 7,360 were women, and 3,440 were elders.
This follows additional airstrikes and ground assaults in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, particularly focused around the city of Khan Younis. According to the Wafa news agency, a number of Palestinians were killed and others were injured on Thursday after the Israeli occupation forces bombed citizens in Khan Yunis city.
Medical sources reported that Israeli occupation bombing targeted a gathering of Palestinians in Abu Mustafa neighborhood in the Qaa al-Qurain area east of Khan Yunis city in the southern Gaza Strip.
According to Middle East Eye, the latest death toll comes after 40 Palestinians were killed and 107 were wounded by Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours.
“Over ten months of hell, people continue to lose their loved ones; family members, close friends and neighbours. Do you know what it means to lose 40,000 of your people?” said Fikr Shalltoot at Medical Aid for Palestinians.
“It means that 40,000 women, children, young people, adults, and elderly people will no longer be there. The children will never grow up, they will never go to school or university. Women will not give birth and will not be there to hold their children.”
“Many people are losing hope and some are losing faith, but mostly people are losing trust in the international community. They are angry and disappointed and believe that the world has failed them and let them down,” Shalltoot said.
On 7 October, a Hamas-led surprise attack on southern Israel killed around 1,200 Israelis. More than 250 others were taken captive back to the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israeli forces have also killed at least 632 Palestinians since the war began, according to the health ministry. That figure includes 147 children and nine women.
In Lebanon, Israeli attacks since October have killed at least 547 people, including 35 women and 20 children and teenagers, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
The entire family of journalist Tamim Ma’mar was killed and their bodies torn to pieces by Israel on August 9, five days ago. #Gaza pic.twitter.com/8eK4g7ZVOO
— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) August 14, 2024
The story of Aysel and Asser, 4-day old Palestinian twins killed with their mother by an Israeli airstrike while their father went to get their birth certificates, is another horrific example of Israel’s atrocities in Gaza.
Yet multiple Western outlets failed to mention *Israel* pic.twitter.com/H1iyJky60n
— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) August 14, 2024
“The entire unjust world does not care about this. That’s all I can say.” Heartbreaking testimony in the wake of the killing of newborn twins and their mother in Gaza — leaving behind a father whose world is shattered. Correspondent @JDiamond1 reports. pic.twitter.com/CKUwLt23sn
— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) August 14, 2024
updated from:
Day 314: Pre-Dawn Israeli Airstrikes Kill at least 9 Palestinians on Thursday
Published on: Aug 15, 2024 at 11:50
On Thursday, day 314 of Israel’s ongoing assault of the entire civilian population of the entire Gaza Strip, Israeli forces continued their attacks on Palestinians by land, sea and air.
Before dawn Thursday morning, six Palestinians were killed and others were injured in Israeli occupation forces’ shelling of Al-Sabra neighborhood in Gaza City, and Bani Suhaila town, east of Khan Younis.
A correspondent with the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported that 3 Palestinians were killed and others were injured when the Israeli occupation warplanes bombed a house belonging to the Khaziq family in the Sabra neighborhood. Israeli occupation artillery also fired shells at a mosque in the neighborhood.
In addition, Israeli occupation forces’ vehicles invaded an area south of the Zeitoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, specifically in the Al-Barasi land, in the area around the Star Factory, and Al-Sikka Street, starting from the Israeli occupation’s position in the Shuhada Junction area, known as the “Netzarim” axis, south of the city. In addition, Israeli warplanes bombed the area, and Israeli tanks fired artillery shells towards the neighborhood.
A number of other Palestinian civilians were killed in the Israeli occupation’s bombing of the town of Bani Suhaila, east of Khan Yunis, when the Israeli occupation targeted a house in the Maan area, east of the city.
In addition, Israeli occupation warplanes launched a raid on Gaza City and the south of the Zeitoun neighborhood.
All of this occurred before dawn on Thursday, day 314 of the Israeli invasion of Gaza, following a day of horrific violence in which Israeli forces committed several massacres against Palestinian civilians, killing dozens, mainly in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.
Meanwhile the food and water crisis continues in Gaza, with famine conditions affecting nearly all of the 2.2 million people trying to survive day to day with the constant Israeli attacks.
This @UNRWA water well in Khan Younis #Gaza was completely destroyed by ongoing military operations just a few months ago
Today, it has become the largest source of drinking water for displaced families in the area after @UNRWA teams worked tirelessly to repair it during the war pic.twitter.com/yhSqsNh9Np
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) August 15, 2024
Palestinian leadership in Gaza stated on Thursday morning that Mohammed Deif, the commander of Hamas’ Izz al-Din al Qassam Brigades, is alive.
In an interview with the Associated Press (AP) published on Thursday, Hamas leader Mohammad Hamdan said Deif is “fine” after Israel claimed to have assassinated him during an airstrike in July that killed nearly a hundred civilians. This is the first time a senior Hamas official has addressed the Israeli claim, made on 1 August, that Deif was killed in an airstrike last month.
The Israeli occupation forces continue their aggression on the Gaza Strip by land, sea and air since October 7, 2023, which resulted in the killing of at least 39,965 Palestinians and the injury of 92,294 others, although the death toll is likely much higher. Thousands of victims are still under the rubble and on the roads, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them.
