The bloodiest ever war in Gaza that broke out exactly six months ago has taken an appalling human toll.
At least 33,175 people have been killed in the besieged Palestinian territory in Israel’s campaign of retaliation for the October 7 attack, according to Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry.
The unprecedented Hamas raid on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,170 Israelis and foreigners, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
While Hamas has refused to say how many fighters it has lost, Israel claims to have killed more than 12,000.
Like many of the casualty figures from the war, this is impossible to confirm independently.
– Israel losses –
More than a third of those killed in Israel on October 7 and in the two subsequent days of violence were members of the security forces — 306 soldiers, 60 police officers and 10 members of the Shin Bet internal security service, Israel said.
Seventy-six of those killed during the attack were foreigners.
The Israeli army says some 604 troops have died since the war began, 20 of those in friendly fire. Of those, 260 have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its ground operations in the territory on October 27, the army said on Sunday.
Seventeen Israelis — soldiers and civilians including Jewish settlers — have been killed in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Eight civilians and 10 Israeli soldiers have died in the north in Hezbollah rocket and missile attacks from Lebanon, with tens of thousands of people displaced.
Of the around 250 Israeli and foreign hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7, 129 remain in Gaza, of which the military says 34 are dead.
Dozens were release from Gaza during a one-week truce in November, and the bodies of 12 hostages have been returned to Israel.
The Israel military said 9,100 rockets have been fired into Israel from Gaza since October 7.
It has called up 300,000 reservists, 17 percent of them women.
– Palestinian losses –
Most of the 33,175 people who have been killed in Gaza in Israel’s retaliatory campaign have been women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.
The Israeli military claims to have “eliminated” 12,000 enemy fighters there, including five brigade commanders and 20 battalion commanders.
At least another 459 Palestinians have been killed in violence in the occupied West Bank, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
The Israeli military claims to have “eliminated 420 terrorists” in its West Bank operations.
Israel says it has struck 32,000 targets in Gaza from the air since the war began.
– Lebanon and Syria –
Israeli fire since October has killed at least 363 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters, but also including at least 70 civilians have also died, according to an AFP tally.
The cross-border fire has displaced tens of thousands of people in southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
Fighters from other groups in Lebanon including Hamas and the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement are also included in the total.
At least 23 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in Israeli strikes in Syria, according to an AFP tally, with seven Iranian Revolutionary Guards killed in a strike on Damascus last week.
Israel says it has struck 1,400 targets from air in Lebanon and 3,300 with artillery, rockets and tanks.
Its military said 3,100 rockets have been fired over the border from Lebanon and 35 from Syria.
By AFP
