PHOTO: MARCO LONGARI / AFP
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza on Friday said the war between militants and Israel has killed 24,762 people in the Palestinian territory.
The toll includes 142 fatalities over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, while 62,108 people have been wounded since war erupted on October 7.
Gunfire and air strikes on Friday shook Gaza's city of Khan Yunis, witnesses said, where Israel is pressing its southward push against Hamas militants.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported intense artillery fire near the city's Al-Amal hospital, while the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said 77 people were killed and dozens wounded overnight.
At the city's Al-Nasser hospital, a child with a bloodied face cried on a gurney. Ambulances arrived with the injured and the dead while in the darkened city beyond, automatic weapons fire sounded. An orange fireball flashed above rooftops.
Israel says it still expects the war to continue for months but a US-Israeli divide over Gaza's post-war future has come into sharp focus after Washington again stressed creation of a Palestinian state as the only way to guarantee Israel's long-term security.
The United Nations says the war, which began with unprecedented Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7, has displaced roughly 85 percent of Gaza's people.
Many are crowded into shelters where they struggle to get food, water, fuel and medical care.
UN agencies say improved aid access is needed urgently as famine and disease loom.
The October 7 attacks resulted in the deaths of about 1,140 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also seized about 250 hostages, around 132 of whom Israel says remain in Gaza. At least 27 hostages are believed to have been killed, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas in response.
Its relentless air and ground offensive has killed thousands of Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry.
With Israel's military offensive moving farther south in the territory, which is about 40 kilometres long, some residents in northern Gaza have begun returning home to what remains of their neighbourhoods.
