THE DEATH TOLL in the Gaza Strip has passed 26,000, the Gaza health ministry has said, in another grim milestone in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. 

The health ministry said at least 26,083 people have been killed since Israel launched its assault on Gaza following the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October. 

The latest toll includes 183 fatalities over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, while 64,487 people have been wounded in Gaza since the conflict began. 

“Many people are still under the rubble and rescuers cannot reach them,” the ministry added.

Civilians have been trapped by the fighting in and around the city of Khan Younis, which the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it has surrounded earlier this week.  

The fighting in the Khan Younis area is killing people and damaging civilian infrastructure, including UNRWA’s largest shelter in the southern area, the Khan Younis Training Centre, the aid agency said. 

“Health facilities are decimated,” UNRWA, the UN’s aid agency in Palestine, said on X (Twitter). 

Thomas White, Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory said:

“Persistent attacks on civilian sites in Khan Younis are utterly unacceptable and must stop immediately…Yesterday, the centre was hit by two shells and caught fire” as he condemned the “consistent failure to uphold the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law: distinction, proportionality and precautions in carrying out attacks.”

Only four of UNRWA’s 22 medical centres are still operational in the middle and southern areas of Gaza. 

UNRWA said that warned of the “alarming spread of disease due to lack of sanitation and clean water. 

“There is a lethal combination of malnutrition and disease,” the agency said. 

On the outskirts of Gaza City, the health ministry said yesterday that 20 people were killed and another 150 wounded while they waited for humanitarian aid to be distributed.

“People were going to get food and flour as they had nothing to eat,” Abu Ata Basal, the uncle of one of the wounded, told AFP.

“Suddenly, tanks appeared and started firing shells at the people, who were cut into pieces.”

Bodies were seen lying on the floor of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, an AFP journalist said.

Hamas said the incident amounted to a “horrific war crime” and Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad said was caused by “artillery shells and missiles”.

With reporting from AFP