New Delhi: Hamas claimed on Thursday that Israeli airstrikes in Gaza resulted in the deaths of nearly 50 people whom its militants had taken as captives in violent cross-border attacks.
The Palestine-based terror group launched a surprise attack on October 7 that killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians. Israel responded with continuous airstrikes leaving over 7,000 people killed, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health ministry. The toll is expected to increase significantly if Israeli forces stationed near the border launch an offensive.
UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Lynne Hastings, stated that despite the Israeli military’s warnings to the population of Gaza City to evacuate, it appears that these advance notifications have had little impact.
She said in a statement that when evacuation routes are bombed, “people are left with nothing but impossible choices. Nowhere is safe in Gaza.”
Israel’s 19-day bombing campaign in Gaza has become one of the most intense of the 21st century, prompting growing global scrutiny of its scale, purpose and cost to human life, according to The New York Times.
The Hamas-run Gazan health ministry says Israeli strikes have killed more than 6,500 people, a number that if verified would make this the deadliest conflict for Palestinians since at least the Lebanon war of 1982.
