Saturday , January 11 2025

‘Battle for survival’ as Gaza death toll passes 46,000

11-01-2025

WASHINGTON/ GAZA STRIP/ BEIRUT: Amnesty International has condemned the US House of Representatives for voting to impose sanctions on International Criminal Court (ICC) officials over issuing of arrest warrants for Israeli leaders over alleged war crimes in Gaza.

Israeli forces killed an estimated 490 Palestinians in the first nine days of 2025, media reports from the war-torn enclave where civilians face a daily “battle for survival”.

At least 22 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since dawn on Thursday, medical sources tell media.

A spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority’s security forces says 247 resistance fighters, which he branded “outlaws”, have been arrested in the occupied West Bank’s Jenin refugee camp.

Israel’s genocide in Gaza has killed at least 46,006 Palestinians and wounded 109,378 since October 7, 2023. At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks that day and more than 200 were taken captive.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Thursday that more than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, with no end in sight to the 15-month conflict.

The ministry said a total of 46,006 Palestinians have been killed and 109,378 wounded. It has said women and children make up more than half the fatalities, but does not say how many of the dead fighters or civilians were.

The Israeli military says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. It says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths because the militants operate in residential areas. Israel has also repeatedly struck what it claims are militants hiding in shelters and hospitals, often killing women and children.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and abducting around 250. A third of the 100 hostages still held in Gaza are believed to be dead.

In Lebanon, the parliament voted Thursday to elect the country’s army commander, Joseph Aoun, as head of state, filling a more than two-year-long presidential vacuum.

The session was the legislature’s 13th attempt to elect a successor to former President Michel Aoun no relation to the army commander whose term ended in October 2022.

The vote came weeks after a tenuous ceasefire agreement halted a 14-month conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and at a time when Lebanon’s leaders are seeking international assistance for reconstruction.

Lebanon’s parliament voted Thursday to elect the country’s army commander, Joseph Aoun, as head of state, filling a more than two-year-long presidential vacuum.

The session was the legislature’s 13th attempt to elect a successor to former President Michel Aoun no relation to the army commander whose term ended in October 2022.

The vote came weeks after a tenuous ceasefire agreement halted a 14-month conflict between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and at a time when Lebanon’s leaders are seeking international assistance for reconstruction.

Aoun was widely seen as the preferred candidate of the United States and Saudi Arabia, whose assistance Lebanon will need to ensure that Israel withdraws its forces from southern Lebanon as stipulated in the agreement and to fund the post-war rebuilding. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)

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