The death toll from the ongoing Israeli genocidal aggression against the Gaza Strip has soared to 61,722 martyrs, the vast majority of them women and children, according to medical sources in the besieged enclave.

Since the launch of the occupation’s brutal military campaign on October 7, 2023, Gaza’s hospitals have been overwhelmed with the dead and injured. Medical authorities report that the total number of wounded has now reached 154,525, many suffering life-altering injuries and permanent disabilities.

In just the past 24 hours alone, 21 Palestinians were killed — including one whose body was recovered from beneath the rubble of a destroyed building — while 185 others were injured in relentless air and ground attacks.

The humanitarian catastrophe deepens as Israel’s siege continues to block the entry of adequate food, water, and medicine. Medical teams confirmed that eight more Palestinians, among them three children, died within the last day due to starvation and acute malnutrition. These deaths bring the total number of lives claimed by hunger to hundreds, highlighting the deliberate use of famine as a weapon of war.

Human rights groups have repeatedly condemned the occupation’s campaign in Gaza as a systematic attempt to eradicate the Palestinian people, calling for urgent international intervention to halt the massacres, lift the siege, and hold Israeli leaders accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity. (ILKHA)