Hamas says war death toll soars past 26,000
GAZA STRIP
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Jan. 26 at least 26,083 people have been killed in the war between the militant group and Israel.
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 war erupted on Oct. 7 last year. "Many people are still under the rubble and rescuers cannot reach them," the ministry added.
Meanwhile, the ministry and witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire as a crowd of Palestinians gathered for humanitarian aid in Gaza City on Jan. 25, killing at least 20 and wounding dozens.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports. The Associated Press could not independently confirm the details of what happened.
Witnesses and health officials said the shooting took place at a roundabout on Gaza City's southern edge, where a large crowd had gathered for distribution of food. Footage posted online and confirmed to have been taken on the main road near the roundabout showed hundreds of people fleeing, some carrying boxes of aid, as shots rang out in the background. Men loaded wounded Palestinians onto horse and donkey carts that took off charging down the avenue.
At Shifa Hospital, where casualties were treated, Mohammad al-Reafi lay on the floor, his bloodied leg bandaged, as medics worked on other wounded around them. He said Israeli troops fired into the crowd.
“We were going to get flour … young people were martyred and other young people were injured," he said. Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said 20 people were killed and 150 others wounded by the shooting.
A number of aid agencies distribute food and other supplies in Gaza. It was not immediately known which one was operating in the area at the time of the incident. The United Nations refugee agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, and the U.N. World Food Program both said they were not involved.
Israeli troops and tanks pushed into Gaza City shortly after the ground invasion began in October and have been battling Palestinian militants there for nearly two months. The military says it has largely dismantled Hamas in northern Gaza but is still facing pockets of resistance, and large swaths of Gaza City and surrounding areas have been reduced to rubble by Israeli bombardment.
The U.N. has said it has been struggling to deliver aid to the north amid Israeli restrictions and continued fighting. Several hundred thousand people are believed to remain in the north after most of the population fled south. U.N. officials say a quarter of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million are facing starvation.
