Palestine

GAZA, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The death toll of Palestinians from Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 8,306, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said on Monday.

Among the victims, 3,457 were children and 2,136 were women, ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qedra said in a press statement.

Meanwhile, 21,048 Palestinians were wounded by the ongoing Israeli airstrikes, it added.

It stated that 25 hospitals have been forced to suspend service due to Israel's bombardment on the Gaza Strip, and 25 ambulances have been targeted.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops and tanks pushed deeper into Gaza on Monday, freeing a soldier held captive by Hamas militants and advancing on two sides of the territory’s main city. The U.N. and medical staff warned that airstrikes have hit closer to hospitals where tens of thousands of Palestinians have sought shelter alongside thousands of wounded.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Two days after cellular and internet service abruptly vanished for most of Gaza amid a heavy Israeli bombardment, the crowded enclave was coming back online Sunday as communications systems were gradually being restored.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Thousands of people broke into aid warehouses in Gaza to take flour and basic hygiene products, a U.N. agency said Sunday, in a mark of growing desperation and the breakdown of public order three weeks into the war between Israel and Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers.

Tanks and infantry pushed into Gaza over the weekend as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a “second stage” in the war, which was ignited by Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 incursion into Israel. Israel also pounded the territory from air, land and sea.

27 October 2023; MEMO: Remarks by President Joe Biden expressing scepticism about the rising death toll in Gaza have drawn outrage from human rights groups and accusations of further dehumanising Palestinians.

Human Rights Watch has strongly rejected claims that the death toll released by the Gaza Health Ministry cannot be trusted, following comments by Israel and the US President.

27 October 2023; MEMO: The International Federation of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), on Friday, described the situation in Gaza as “catastrophic” as the lack of fuel, it said, would turn the hospitals into graves, Anadolu Agency reports.

27 October 2023; MEMO: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced, on Friday, the entry of an international medical team into Gaza, along with six trucks loaded with medical materials and water purification supplies to support medical care in the blockaded Strip, Anadolu Agency reports.

27 October 2023; MEMO: Palestinian group, Hamas, on Friday denied Israeli allegations that it is using a hospital in the northern Gaza Strip for military purposes, Anadolu Agency reports.

"The Israeli claims about Al-Shifa Hospital are false" said Izzat Al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’s Political Bureau.

In a statement, he also warned that

27 October 2023; MEMO: Israeli security forces restricted young Palestinians from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem for prayers on Friday and deployed in strength across the Old City and beyond to quell any unrest spilling over from the conflict in Gaza, Reuters reports.

In the Occupied West Bank, Israeli troops killed four Palestinians during raids, the official Palestinian news agency, WAFA, said.

28 October 2023; MEMO: Communications and internet services in the Gaza Strip were completely cut off on Friday evening amid heavy Israeli bombing of feeder lines, towers and networks, a service provider said, Anadolu Agency reports.

The Palestine Telecommunications Company said in a statement that

"Landline, wireless and internet communications services were completely cut off amid intense Israeli bombing on the lines with the West Bank, and on the towers and networks"