Health officials in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip say more than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed.
The figure, amounting to nearly 1% of the territory’s pre-war population, is a new reflection of the staggering cost of the war, which in just over 10 weeks has displaced more than 80% of Gaza’s people and devastated wide swaths of the tiny coastal enclave.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Friday that it has documented 20,057 deaths in the fighting.
It does not differentiate between combatant and civilian deaths.
It has previously said that roughly two-thirds of the dead were women or minors. It said 53,320 Palestinians have been wounded.
Experts have told the Associated Press (AP) that it is among history’s deadliest and most destructive military campaigns.
In just over two months, it has caused more destruction than the razing of Syria’s Aleppo between 2012 and 2016, or, proportionally, the Allied bombing of Germany in the Second World War.
More civilians have also been killed than the US-led coalition did in the entirety of its three-year fight against the Islamic State group.
Israel declared war after Hamas militants stormed across its border on October 7 and killed some 1200 people and kidnapped 240 others.
Israel has carried out thousands of air strikes as well as a fierce ground offensive in what it says is a campaign to destroy Hamas’ military capabilities.
It blames Hamas for the high civilian death toll, citing the group’s use of crowded residential areas for military purposes.
Israeli officials say the army has killed some 7000 Hamas militants, but it has not presented any evidence to back up the claim.
