The Health Ministry in Palestine’s Gaza has released the names of 34,344 Palestinians, including 710 Palestinian newborns, who were killed by Israeli military in its ongoing war in the besieged territory.
The list published on Monday included the names of 11,983 Palestinians minors — under the age of 18 — killed by the Israeli army since October 7 last year.
The list has names of of 2,734 Palestinians over 60 who were also killed by Israeli military.
Gaza has been described as a “graveyard for children” by James Elder, a spokesperson for UNICEF.
Last month, Israel killed two newborn twins in an air strike while their father Muhammad Abu al Qumsan was en route to register their birth at the hospital.
The twins, just three days old, were killed along with their mother and grandmother.
Compiling data
Previously, the Ministry had published names of nearly half of the deceased and indicated that it was in the process of compiling personal data for the remaining victims before their names could be released.
Since October 7, Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 41,226 Palestinians and wounded 95,413 others with over 10,000 believed to be buried under rubble of annihilated homes.
But experts and some studies say this is just a tip of an iceberg and the actual Palestinian death toll could be around 200,000.
The Lancet medical journal published a letter from three academics on July 5 estimating that indirect deaths, caused by factors like disease, might mean the death toll is several times higher than official estimates and possibly above 186,000.
“This high number is despite various ceasefire agreements over the past six months. If deaths continue at this rate — about 23,000 a month — there would be an additional 149,500 deaths by the end of the year, some six and half months from the initial mid-June estimate. Using the method, the total deaths since the conflict began would be estimated at about 335,500 in total,” Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, wrote in an article in The Guardian.
The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire 2.4 million population of the territory amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel faces accusations of genocide for its actions in Gaza at the International Court of Justice.
Source: trtworld