IRISH EXAMINER
The Palestinian death toll from the war between Israel and Hamas has soared past 25,000, the Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip has said, while the Israeli government appears far from achieving its goals of crushing the militant group and freeing more than 100 hostages.
The level of death, destruction and displacement from the war is without precedent in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Israeli officials say the fighting is likely to continue for several more months.
The conflict and the plight of hostages held in Gaza have divided ordinary Israelis and their leaders, while the offensive threatens to ignite a wider war involving Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen that support the Palestinians. In Lebanon, Hezbollah forces have engaged in near-daily clashes with Israeli troops along the border.
An Israeli air strike on Sunday hit a car near a Lebanese army checkpoint in the southern town of Kafra, killing at least one person and injuring several others, Lebanese state media reported. The identities of those killed and injured were not immediately clear.
The United States, which has provided essential diplomatic and military support for Israel’s offensive, has had limited success in persuading Israel to put civilians at less risk and to facilitate the delivery of more humanitarian aid.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected US and international calls for post-war plans that would include a path to Palestinian statehood.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the refusal to accept a two-state solution “totally unacceptable”.
Speaking on Sunday, he added: “The Middle East is a tinderbox. We must do all we can to prevent conflict igniting across the region.
“That starts with an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to relieve the suffering in Gaza.”
The war began with Hamas’s surprise attack into Israel on October 7, in which Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 hostages.
Israel responded with a three-week air campaign and then a ground invasion into northern Gaza that flattened entire neighbourhoods.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said 25,105 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since October 7, and another 62,681 have been injured.
The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its death toll but says around two-thirds of those killed were women and children.
