Palestinian death toll in Israeli genocide in Gaza tops 70,000

The Palestinian death toll from Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 2023 has risen to 70,100, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Saturday, reported Xinhua.

During the past 48 hours, two bodies and 11 injured people were transferred to hospitals in the Palestinian enclave, bringing total injuries to 170,983 since the Palestinian-Israeli conflict broke out in October 2023, the authorities added.

Despite a ceasefire implemented in October, periodic Israeli attacks have killed 354 people and injured 906 others in the besieged enclave, according to the statement.

On Saturday, two Palestinian children were killed in an Israeli drone strike east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, as the Israeli army intensified its attacks across the enclave, according to Palestinian medical and security sources.

The conflict erupted on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages, prompting a large-scale Israeli military response in Gaza.

Meanwhile, two Palestinian children were killed Saturday in an Israeli drone strike east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, as the Israeli army intensified its attacks on various areas of the enclave, according to Palestinian medical and security sources.

Nasser Hospital said in a press statement that two brothers, respectively aged 8 and 11, were killed in a drone strike in the town of Bani Suheila, located near the "yellow line" which marks the Israeli military's redeployment boundary under the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

The Israeli army has not issued a comment on the incident.

Palestinian security sources said the Israeli army has intensified its land, air, and sea bombardments of the Gaza Strip since Friday night.

The sources said Israeli artillery shelled parts of Beit Lahia city in northern Gaza. In Gaza city, bombardment hit the Shuja'iyya and Tuffah neighborhoods, while tanks fired toward the eastern edge of the Zeitoun neighborhood. The Israeli Navy also opened fire off the city's coast.

Further south, artillery targeted areas east of the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, and the Israeli army carried out airstrikes on eastern Rafah as well as on the towns of Qarara and Bani Suheila east of Khan Younis.

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said in a press statement that the Israeli army's escalation of strikes is "an extension of its ongoing aggression against the Gaza Strip."

He called on mediators and guarantor states to take serious action to stop Israel's violations of the ceasefire agreement.