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The
number of dead is steadily rising despite international calls
for Israeli forces to limit civilian harm in the new phase of
its military offensive in Gaza that began on Dec. 1 when a truce
with Hamas collapsed, Health Minister Mai al-Kaila told a news
conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
More than 40,900 people in Gaza have been injured in Israeli
airstrikes, according to a report his ministry issued after the
briefing.
Al-Kaila said airstrikes have hit health facilities and
hospitals and Israeli forces had detained 30 health workers
during the offensive launched in retribution for an Oct. 7
cross-border rampage into southern Israel by Hamas militants who
killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.
Health services in Gaza are in a "disastrous" state, she said,
in remarks similar to those by a World Health Organization
official in the small Palestinian enclave earlier on Tuesday.
In the south of the densely populated territory where Israel has
focused its military campaign since Friday when the truce fell
apart, only five hospitals are operating at minimal capacity and
the total number of beds is 1,300.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where violence has surged
since the Gaza war erupted, 260 Palestinians have been killed
and 3,200 injured since Oct. 7, Al-Kaila said.
(Reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; writing by Maggie Fick;
editing by Edmund Blair, Andrew Heavens and Mark Heinrich)
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