The ruins of houses destroyed in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, October 12, 2023.
The death toll from Israels savage attacks on the Gaza Strip continues to rise nearly a week after the regime launched its brutal onslaught on the besieged Palestinian territory.
The Health Ministry in Gaza announced on Thursday that at least 1,537 Palestinians, including 500 children, and 276 women have been killed in six days of incessant Israeli bombardment of the blockaded territory.
More than 6,612 Palestinians have also been wounded in the bombardment.
The regimes latest air raids claimed at least two dozen lives in the densely populated Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza on Thursday.
Hundreds of thousands of Gazans have also been displaced as a result of the regimes relentless and indiscriminate attacks.
At least 423,000 people have now been forced to flee their homes in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations said.
As of late Thursday, the number of displaced people in Gaza had risen by an additional 84,444 people and reached 423,378, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said.
The coastal territory remains under Israels complete siege with no access to electricity, water, food, and medicines.
Israel started its onslaught on Saturday after Gaza-based resistance groups launched a multi-front operation against the regime.
Israel used banned white phosphorus munitions against desperate people in Gaza, a human rights monitor said.
In a post on X on Thursday, Maha Hussaini, director of strategies at the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor in Geneva, said that the Tel Aviv regime was "using internationally prohibited white phosphorus in Gaza."
"These munitions are an indiscriminate incendiary weapon that ignites on contact with oxygen. In closed spaces, the toxic fumes can cause asphyxiation & permanent respiratory damage," she added.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch also said on Thursday Israel used white phosphorus munitions in Gaza and Lebanon.
The United Nations Humanitarian Office (OCHA) said on Thursday that Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip has inflicted damage on over 12,600 homes in the coastal territory.
It added that 1,000 of these homes were flattened and another 560 housing units sustained serious damage, which rendered them uninhabitable.
Many people in the impoverished sliver face dire shortages of water, fuel and medical supplies, as all 13 hospitals there are only partially operational due to severe shortages of fuel and crucial medical supplies.
It said that the reduction in water supplies due to Israels tightening its siege on the strip has resulted in dire water shortages for more than 650,000 people in the territory of 2.3 million.
As sewage systems have been destroyed, fetid wastewater is sent into the streets and posing a health hazard, OCHA added.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, warned on Wednesday that hospitals across Gaza are overwhelmed and experiencing shortages of drugs, medical supplies and electricity.
In a statement, Avril Benoît, executive director of MSF-USA, said the aid agency was "seeing shortages of water, electricity, and fuel, which hospitals rely on for their generators."
Gaza is under full Israeli siege and now the only power plant there has shut down due to a fuel outage. According to health authorities, overwhelmed hospitals without electricity will have to rely on their emergency generators, which will only last two to four days.
Hassan Khalaf, the medical director of al-Wafa Hospital in Gaza City, said there are currently 100 newborn babies relying on medical equipment currently in Gaza.
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/27700
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