By Wafaa Shurafa, Sally Abou Aljoud and Julia Frankel | Related Press
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Greater than 69,000 Palestinians have been killed within the Israel-Hamas battle to this point, Gaza well being officers mentioned Saturday, as each side accomplished the most recent alternate of our bodies below the phrases of the tenuous ceasefire.
The newest leap in deaths occurred as extra our bodies are recovered from the rubble within the devastated Gaza Strip for the reason that ceasefire started on Oct. 10, and as beforehand unidentified our bodies are recognized. The toll additionally contains Palestinians killed by strikes for the reason that truce took maintain, which Israel says goal remaining militants.
Israel on Saturday returned the stays of one other 15 Palestinians to Gaza, based on hospital officers within the territory, a day after militants returned the stays of a hostage to Israel. He was recognized as Lior Rudaeff, based on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ’s workplace. The Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board mentioned that Rudaeff was born in Argentina.
The exchanges are the central a part of the ceasefire’s preliminary section, which requires that Hamas return all hostage stays as rapidly as doable. For every Israeli hostage returned, Israel has been releasing the stays of 15 Palestinians.
The truce is aimed toward winding down the deadliest and most damaging battle ever fought between Israel and the Palestinian militant group. It started with the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led assault on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 folks and noticed 251 taken hostage.
Additionally Saturday, Israeli settlers staged two assaults on Palestinian farmers, paramedics, activists and journalists within the occupied West Financial institution as settler violence reaches new highs within the territory.
‘I have not lost hope’
Palestinians on Saturday checked the newly returned stays. Ahmed Dheir, director of forensic medication at Nasser Hospital within the southern metropolis of Khan Younis, mentioned that the stays of 300 folks have now been returned, with 89 recognized.
“We do not have sufficient resources or the DNA to match them with the martyrs’ families,” Dheir mentioned. Unidentified ones will probably be buried in batches.
Hopeful households appeared into the physique luggage of decomposed stays. “Close it, it’s not him,” one household mentioned.
“I always come here. I have not lost hope. I am still waiting for him,” mentioned the mom of a lacking boy, who didn’t give her identify.
Gaza’s Well being Ministry mentioned the variety of folks killed there for the reason that battle started has risen to 69,169. The ministry, a part of the Hamas-run authorities and staffed by medical professionals, maintains detailed data seen as usually dependable by impartial specialists.
The ministry mentioned 284 folks had been added to the entire after their identities had been verified between Oct. 31 and Nov. 7.
And over the previous three days, 10 our bodies had been delivered to Gaza hospitals — 9 retrieved from below the rubble and one newly killed, the ministry mentioned. Because the ceasefire started, 241 folks have been killed in Gaza, it mentioned.
It added that numerous Palestinians stay lacking.
Israel’s army on Saturday mentioned that troopers killed two militants who had approached troops, one in northern Gaza and the opposite within the south.
Settlers descend on the Palestinian olive harvest
Palestinian well being officers mentioned 11 folks had been injured in an assault by Israeli settlers within the West Financial institution, together with journalists, medics, worldwide activists and farmers, as settler violence reaches new highs throughout this 12 months’s olive harvest.
The U.N. humanitarian workplace has reported extra Israeli settler assaults on Palestinians and their property within the West Financial institution in October than in every other month for the reason that workplace started preserving observe in 2006. There have been greater than 260 assaults, or a mean of eight incidents per day, the workplace mentioned.
Activists and medics have flocked to this 12 months’s olive harvest to assist Palestinian farmers safely attain their fields.
A video circulating in Palestinian media confirmed the within of a West Financial institution hospital the place the injured — bandaged and bloody — had been introduced from Saturday’s assault in town of Beita.
Jonathan Pollak, a longtime activist, informed The Related Press that he was selecting olives when dozens of masked Israeli settlers, armed with golf equipment, descended, chasing them and lobbing rocks.
Pollak mentioned he noticed 5 settlers converge on a journalist and her safety guard. He watched the settlers beat and bludgeon her, denting her helmet. Pollak was hit within the head with a rock and brought to the hospital.
“It’s a pattern we see every day,” Pollak mentioned. “This is just one finger in the iron fist of Israeli policy aiming to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their land.”
There was no rapid Israeli remark.
Additionally Saturday, Palestinian paramedics reported one other settler assault in a close-by village, Burin. The Palestinian Purple Crescent mentioned settlers injured 4 worldwide activists and one 57-year-old man.
Israel’s army mentioned troopers responded to a report of rock-throwing at an Israeli automobile and that Israeli civilians then hurled rocks at harvesters. It mentioned Israeli and Palestinian civilians had been injured.
Julia Frankel reported from Jerusalem, and Sally Abou AlJoud from Beirut.
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