GAZA STRIP (Dispatches) -- At least 23 more Palestinians were martyred in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, pushing up the overall fatality toll since last year to 45,361, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Wednesday.
A ministry statement added that some 107,803 others were injured in the ongoing assault.
“Israeli forces killed 23 people and injured 39 others in three massacres of families in the last 24 hours,” the ministry said. “Many people are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.
The Zionist regime has continued a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip since a Hamas operation on Oct. 7 last year despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.
The second year of genocide in Gaza has drawn growing international condemnation, with officials and institutions labeling the attacks and blocking of aid deliveries as a deliberate attempt to destroy a population.
Last month, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former war minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its deadly war on Gaza.
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli troops and military aircraft martyred at least eight Palestinians, including two women and a teenager, in attacks on the Tulkarem and Nur Shams refugee camps, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
Seven people were killed in an Israeli drone attack and shooting by troops in the Tulkarem refugee camp, and one person was killed in the nearby Nur Shams camp, the ministry said, following a bloody day of Israeli military raids that began at dawn on Tuesday.
Palestinian women – identified as Khawla Ali Abdullah Abdo, 53, and Bara Khalid Hussein, 30 – and an 18-year-old, Fathi Saeed Salem Obaid, were among the seven people killed in Tulkarem.
The official Wafa news agency reported that the teenager died after being shot in the chest and abdomen and the two women were reported killed in drone strikes.
The victim in the Nur Shams camp was identified as Mahmoud Muhammad Khaled Amar, who was shot by Israeli soldiers and later found dead on the ground in the camp’s Abu Bakr as-Siddiq Mosque neighborhood.
Several people were also injured in Nur Shams following an Israeli drone strike, the news agency said.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it killed one Palestinian in a “counterterrorism” operation in Tulkarem, while its forces arrested 18 other people and confiscated dozens of weapons.
The Israeli military confirmed later that an Israeli aircraft had carried out a strike on the Nur Shams refugee camp.
Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said in a statement that two of its
An improvised explosive device planted by Palestinian fighters and detonated during the Israeli raid on Tulkarem hit a vehicle in which the commander of Israel’s Menashe Brigade, Colonel Ayub Kayuf, was travelling, causing him injuries and requiring medical evacuation, the Israeli military said early on Wednesday.
Israeli military raids and more shootings of Palestinians were reported across the occupied West Bank late on Tuesday and into Wednesday morning.
Wafa reported that two Palestinian men and a 15-year-old were shot and injured during an Israeli raid on the town of Beit Fruik, located east of Nablus.
Four young Palestinian men were also shot and injured in the town of Beit Ummar, north of Al-Khalil, when Zionist troops at a checkpoint opened fire on the vehicle in which they were travelling, Wafa reports. One of the four was in critical condition, the news agency said.
Another Palestinian man was stopped by Israeli forces in the Old City of Al-Khalil and searched. After being released, he was then shot in the thigh by troops without reason, Wafa reported.
Israeli military bulldozers also demolished infrastructure during Tuesday’s raid on Tulkarem, including homes, shops, part of the walls of Salam Mosque, and part of the camp’s water network, the news agency said.
Raids by Israeli forces on Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank have increased in intensity and violence since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported last week that 968 Palestinians have been martyred by Israeli forces and Israeli settlers across the occupied West Bank between January 2023 and November 2024.
Of those killed, 210 were Palestinian children, OCHA reported.