The Latest | Gaza death toll surges over 30,000 as a strike kills and wounds scores waiting for aid

More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip because the get started of the Israel-Hamas struggle just about 5 months in the past, well being officers within the territory mentioned as a strike on a crowd of other folks waiting for aid in Gaza City killed and wounded scores on Thursday.

At least 70 other folks had been killed as Palestinians coated up for humanitarian help, mentioned Gaza’s Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra. Another 280 other folks had been wounded, he mentioned. The struggle has pushed 80% of Gaza’s inhabitants of two.3 million Palestinians from their houses, and U.N. officers say a quarter of the inhabitants is ravenous.

After the strike, Gaza’s Health Ministry mentioned the Palestinian death toll from the struggle within the territory climbed to 30,035, with any other 70,457 wounded. The ministry does now not distinguish in its rely between opponents and noncombatants. Israel says it has killed 10,000 militants, with out offering proof.

Israel’s air, sea and flooring offensive introduced in accordance with Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault has brought about well-liked devastation in Gaza City, in large part setting apart it from the remainder of the territory for months, with little aid coming into.

The struggle has unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and sparked international worry over the placement in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost town alongside the border with Egypt, the place 1.4 million Palestinians have sought protection from Israel’s day by day bombardments.

The struggle started after Hamas-led militants stormed across southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 other folks, most commonly civilians, and taking about 250 others hostage.

Currently:

— Food aid reaches north Gaza for first time in weeks, and Israeli hostages’ households push for unlock.

— What would a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas appear to be?

— U.S. sanctions Iranian deputy commander, Houthi member and ships that delivery Iranian oil.

— Qatar’s emir to speak about Gaza and hostages with Macron all over a state visit to France.

— Find extra of AP’s protection at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.

Here’s the most recent:

WHO OFFICIAL DECRIES GAZA DEATH TOLL, SAYS THESE ARE HUMAN LIVES, NOT “MERE STATISTICS”

CAIRO — A regional director of the World Health Organization decried on Thursday the most recent surge within the Palestinian death toll within the Gaza Strip and steered global leaders to sign up for her in a push for a everlasting cease-fire.

Hanan Balkhy, who’s WHO’s head for the Eastern Mediterranean, mentioned “concrete steps” towards peace are desperately wanted.

“The 30 thousand are not mere statistics, they are human lives,” Balkhy wrote on X, previously Twitter. “As a doctor and humanitarian, I will keep advocating for the right of all people to life and health. I call on all leaders to join.”

The WHO leader Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had up to now described Gaza as “a death zone” and referred to as many times for a cessation of hostilities.

Last week, WHO warned at a regional news convention in Cairo that deficient sanitation, the loss of get entry to to scrub water, and the over-crowdedness of settlements the place displaced Gazans have relocated, may just result in additional infectious illness outbreaks and in the long run extra deaths within the battered territory.

PALESTINIAN DIPLOMAT AT THE U.N. IN GENEVA DENOUNCES LATEST STRIKE IN GAZA

GENEVA — The Palestinian ambassador on the United Nations in Geneva denounced Thursday’s obvious Israeli strike that killed a minimum of 70 other folks waiting for aid in Gaza City.

“Are these human shields? Are these Hamas combatants,” requested Palestinian ambassador Ibrahim Khraishi, addressing his Israeli counterpart Meirav Eilon Shahar.

Khraishi spoke as the U.N. human rights leader used to be presenting a file from his place of job concerning the Gaza state of affairs to the Human Rights Council. ,

“Hundreds of Palestinian citizens, civilians … who were waiting for trucks loaded with humanitarian aid, and they were bombed by the occupying power,” mentioned Khraishi. “I would say to you: Let us put an end to the massacre.”

Khraishi represents the Palestinian Authority that runs pockets of the occupied West Bank but not the Gaza Strip, which is under the control of Hamas. He reiterated that the authority had condemned Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack that triggered the latest Israel-Hamas war.

Volker Türk, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, warned of the risk of famine in north Gaza, where aid groups have largely been denied access in recent weeks, and railed against the “carnage” in Gaza and the attacks in Israel that preceded them.

Eilon Shahar, who spoke right before Khrashi and after the U.N. rights chief, stressed that more than 1,200 people were “butchered” in the Oct. 7 attack while others were subjected to “unspeakable acts of violence” by Hamas,

She also criticized Türk’s comments.

“The minimal reference to these horrific acts in your statement today is an affront to the victims and supports those who seek to remove these crimes from the narrative altogether,” she said.

Dozens of diplomats were taking part in Thursday’s council debate, which was focusing on recent developments in Palestinian areas.

AUSTRIA’S TOP DIPLOMAT ON MIDEAST TOUR APPEALS FOR A PAUSE IN FIGHTING AHEAD OF RAMADAN

BEIRUT — Austria’s international minister on Thursday steered Israel and Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group towards escalating the struggle alongside the unstable Israel-Lebanon border and expressed hope for a pause in the fighting in Gaza in time for the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in March.

The Middle East has witnessed enough devastation and cruelty, said Alexander Schallenberg, speaking after meeting his Lebanese counterpart in Beirut. He came to Lebanon after visiting Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the Israeli occupied West Bank.

Overnight, Israeli airstrikes on Lebanese villages along the southern border killed two people and wounded 14 others in the village of Kafra, state-run National News Agency reported.

Since the Israel-Hamas war started on Oct. 7, after Palestinian militants stormed parts of southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostage, Hezbollah started attacking Israeli posts, drawing return fire from Israel in daily exchanges.

More than 210 Hezbollah fighters and nearly 40 civilians have been killed since then on the Lebanese side. In Israel, nine soldiers and nine civilians have been killed in Hezbollah attacks since Oct. 7.

European and American officials have tried to ease the tensions in visits to Beirut, to avoid a full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah, which has said it won’t discuss any deals before the war in Gaza ends.

“Everybody is asked not to escalate and it always takes two sides,” Schallenberg said.

RELATIVES OF HOSTAGES MARCH TO DEMAND FREEDOM FOR LOVED ONES

TEL AVIV, Israel — The Israeli families of hostages held by Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip and their supporters are launching a four-day march from southern Israel to Jerusalem to demand their loved ones be set free.

The march comes as negotiations are underway in Qatar to bring about a deal between Hamas and Israel that would lead to a cease-fire in exchange for the release of hostages. President Joe Biden has said such a deal was at hand but officials from Israel and Hamas have expressed skepticism about it.

Negotiators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar have been working on a framework deal under which Hamas would free some of the dozens of hostages it holds in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners and a six-week halt in fighting.

During the temporary pause, negotiations would continue over the release of the remaining hostages.

Hostages freed in a late-November deal, some of whom still have relatives held in Gaza, joined the march on Wednesday. It will end near the official residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later this week.

In its Oct. 7 attack, Hamas abducted roughly 250 people, according to Israeli authorities, including men, women, children and older adults. Roughly 100 were freed about 50 days into their captivity. Some 130 hostages remain and Israel says about a quarter of them are dead.

The plight of the hostages has deeply shaken Israelis, who see in them a long lasting image of the state’s failure to give protection to its voters from Hamas’ attack.