Gaza death toll tops 5,000, nearly half of them children: Officials

Nearly 5,100 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israel launched a relentless bombing campaign against the besieged enclave after an attack by Hamas inside Israel more than two weeks ago, according to health officials.

About 40 percent of the 5,087 people killed are children, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said on Monday, the day when Israel’s army said it carried out more than 300 new air attacks within 24 hours. Palestinian officials said more than 400 people were killed in that period.

Thousands of buildings have been destroyed, and more than one million people displaced in the territory, which has been under siege and largely deprived of water, food and other basic supplies.

Fighting raged unabated overnight after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised that Israel would “erase Hamas”, an armed group that runs Gaza, as a full-scale ground invasion loomed.

Hamas’s attack in southern Israel killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.

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Article URL : https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/23/gaza-death-toll-exceeds-5000-as-israel-continues-daily-bombardments