Toll of martyred Palestinians hits 8,796, including 3,648 children
GAZA, Palestine (AFP) - The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said Wednesday 8,796 people have been martyred since the war with Israel erupted on October 7.
The martyrs' toll includes 3,648 children while 22,219 people have been wounded, a health ministry statement said. Israeli airstrikes hit a densely populated refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, martyring at least 100 Palestinians and a Hamas commander, and medics struggled to treat the casualties, even setting up operating rooms in hospital corridors.
An Israel Defense Forces statement said the strike on Jabalia, Gaza's largest refugee camp, had killed Ibrahim Biari. It said he was a ringleader of what it called the "murderous terror attack" on Oct. 7. A Hamas statement said there were 400 dead and injured in Jabalia, which houses families of refugees from wars with Israel dating back to 1948. The blast left large craters in a rubble filled area surrounded by wrecked concrete buildings.
In Washington, a group of anti-war protesters raised red-stained hands to interrupt a hearing in Congress on providing more aid to Israel. They shouted slogans including, "Ceasefire now!" "Protect the children of Gaza!" and "Stop funding genocide." Capitol police removed them from the room. White House national security spokesperson John Kirby had no comment on the blast at the refugee camp, saying he had no information yet. The "killing of civilians is not a war aim" of Israel, Kirby said.
PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS ENGULFS GAZA
UN and other aid officials said civilians in the besieged Palestinian enclave were engulfed by a public health catastrophe, with hospitals struggling to treat casualties as electricity supplies peter out.
After the attack on Jabalia, dozens of bodies lay shrouded in white, lined up against the side of the nearby Indonesian Hospital, footage obtained by Reuters showed. Juggling dwindling supplies of medicines, power cuts and air or artillery strikes that have shaken hospital buildings, surgeons in Gaza have worked night and day trying to save a constant stream of patients.
"We take it an hour at a time because we don't know when we will be receiving patients. Several times we've had to set up surgical spaces in the corridors and even sometimes in the hospital waiting areas," said Dr. Mohammed al-Run.
