Local authorities add 14,000 people, who disappeared and presumed to be dead, to the list.
The Gaza authorities updated the number of war of the War of Israel against the enclave at 61,709, after adding thousands of missing and now alleged dead.
The head of the Gaza Government Information Office said at a press conference that organizations of 76% of Palestinians killed in the conflict had been recovered and brought to medical centers. However, at least 14,222 people would still be trapped under the rubble or in the areas inaccessible to rescuers.
Speaking at the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, Salama Maarouf told journalists that among the number of deaths, 17,881 children, including 214 newborn.
“More than 2 million people have been moved by force, some more than 25 times, in difficult conditions without basic services,” added the manager, noting that 111,588 people were also injured.
“Houses have become cemeteries”
The updated figures occur in the middle of the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that last month stopped, at least temporarily, 15 months of genocide in the enclave, which followed the assault by Hamas on The south of Israel in October 2023 which saw the armed group kill about 1,200 and bring 250 people back to Gaza in captives.
The break in the fighting, which should continue until the beginning of March, gave room for Palestinian rescuers to reach Gaza parts that they could not reach before.
“Humanitarian and medical teams have moved from rescue missions to recovery missions,” said Tareq Abu Azzom d’Tel Aviv Tribune, signaling from Al-Rashid de Gaza Street, a road that many Palestinians take in their natal cities from the North.
“Hundreds of houses have become cemeteries.”
Maarouf also noted the heavy price on health, humanitarian workers and the media in the enclave. At least 1,150 medical staff, 205 journalists and 194 civil defense workers were said to have been killed during the Israel.
Phase II talks
Negotiations are about to start, going to the second stage of the three-phase ceasefire. This provides an approach to a permanent end of war.
The mediators of Qatar, Egypt and the United States will open these talks today, but if they cannot bring Israel and Hamas to an agreement, the fighting could resume in March.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is in Washington, DC and plans to meet President Donald Trump, is under pressure from the far-right allies to cut the short ceasefire and continue to fight.
Netanyahu, who alongside other Israeli officials and leaders of Hamas is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, said that he and Trump would discuss “victory over Hamas, reaching the release of all our hostages and dealing with the Iranian terrorist axis “in the in the in the in the Middle East.
