More than 16,000 people died in the Gaza Strip in the 43-day war between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which has not updated the figures for several days due to incessant Israeli attacks and Israel’s collapse. main hospitals.
The previous number of victims was announced by the Ministry last Thursday, and it was later reported that more than 11,500 people died in the Strip. According to the report, more than 29,800 people were injured, 70% of whom were women, children and the elderly. same source.
The spokesperson of the Gaza Ministry of Health assured Efe that “the real number is much higher” and emphasized that these figures are “estimates”.
In this sense, he emphasized that at least 3,500 people are still trapped under the rubble of buildings and the attacks have not stopped.
Of the 24 hospitals with inpatient capacity in the Northern Strip, only one, Al Ahli in Gaza City, is currently operating at minimum capacity and accepting patients.
The rest began to collapse one by one when electricity, fuel, internet, drinking water, food and medicine ran out.
These figures became known shortly after the Ministry condemned the Israeli Army’s decision to give doctors, patients and displaced persons staying at the Al-Shifa Palestinian hospital in northern Gaza an hour to leave. It’s already past time.
According to the ministry, Head of Orthopedics Department Adnan al Bursh assured that the order created a “serious situation of panic and fear” in the hospital and emphasized that doctors would not leave the hospital without their patients.
On the other hand, Gaza General Director of Health Munir al-Bursh condemned that Israeli soldiers took the bodies from the hospital morgue and the cemetery dug around the medical facilities.
The Israeli Army maintains that Al-Shifa hid “a command centre, weapons and technological assets” from Hamas and that it was therefore a military target.
It has laid siege to it in recent days and launched several limited attacks on facilities; here he claimed to have discovered weapons and a tunnel used by the Islamist group Hamas.
Israel declared war on Hamas on October 7, following a major offensive that saw the Islamist group launch thousands of rockets and infiltrate Israeli territory with nearly 3,000 militiamen, slaughtering nearly 1,200 people and kidnapping 240 more.
Since then, Israel’s air, sea and land forces have relentlessly attacked the Gaza Strip; This led to deaths and injuries, as well as the displacement of 1.7 million Gazans, more than two-thirds of the total population.