Palestinian death toll nears 35,400 as Israel continues to pound Gaza

By Ikram Kouachi

At least 35,386 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s ongoing offensive on the Gaza Strip since last October, the Health Ministry in the besieged enclave said on Saturday.

A ministry statement said that 79,366 other people have also been injured in the onslaught.

“Israeli attacks killed 83 people and injured 105 others in the last 24 hours,” the statement said.

“Many people are still trapped under rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.

Israel has waged an unrelenting offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas last Oct. 7 which killed some 1,200 people.

Tel Aviv has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

Over seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, according to the UN.

In an interim ruling in January, The Hague-based International Court of Justice said it is "plausible" that Tel Aviv is committing genocide in Gaza, ordering it to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in the enclave.