Israel-Gaza warfare stay: Gaza loss of life toll passes 40,000 as ceasefire and hostage talks start in Doha

Talking from Beirut, the French overseas minister Stephane Sejourne mentioned {that a} ceasefire in Gaza was “necessary” for peace within the area together with Lebanon, AFP studies.

“We are all worried about the regional situation,” Sejourne mentioned after assembly parliament speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group.

France “supports Lebanon, and in this context and in the context of regional peace, we hope for the ceasefire… in the Gaza Strip, which… will be necessary to guarantee peace in the region,” he mentioned.

Earlier than his arrival, Sejourne mentioned in a press release on X that his go to aimed to “support ongoing diplomatic efforts towards de-escalation in the region”.

His journey comes a day after US envoy Amos Hochstein visited Beirut and mentioned there was “no more time to waste” for a Gaza ceasefire, noting it might “also help enable a diplomatic resolution” in Lebanon and forestall a wider warfare.

The UN’s human rights chief, Volker Türk has mentioned that at this time marks “a grim milestone” with the information that the loss of life toll from Gaza has surpassed 40,000.

His assertion mentioned: “This unimaginable situation is overwhelmingly due to recurring failures by the Israeli Defense Forces to comply with the rules of war.

“On average, about 130 people have been killed every day in Gaza over the past 10 months. The scale of the Israeli military’s destruction of homes, hospitals, schools and places of worship is deeply shocking.

“International humanitarian law (IHL) is very clear on the paramount importance on the protection of civilians, and civilian property and infrastructure. Our Office has documented serious violations of IHL by both the Israeli military and Palestinian armed groups, including the armed wing of Hamas.

“As the world reflects on and considers its inability to prevent this carnage, I urge all parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire, lay down their arms and stop the killing once and for all. The hostages must be released. Palestinians arbitrarily detained must be freed. Israel’s illegal occupation must end and the internationally agreed two-State solution must become a reality.”

Reuters gives an explainer on how Palestinian well being authorities calculate the loss of life toll from Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which at this time handed 40,000.

Within the first months of the warfare, loss of life tolls had been calculated totally from counting our bodies that arrived in hospitals and information included names and id numbers for many of these killed. Because the battle floor on, and fewer hospitals and morgues continued to function, the authorities adopted different strategies too.

From early Might, the well being ministry up to date its breakdown of complete fatalities to incorporate unidentified our bodies which account for almost a 3rd of the general toll. Officers mentioned these had been our bodies that had arrived at hospitals or medical centres with out private information akin to id numbers or full names. It additionally started together with deaths reported on-line by relations who needed to enter info together with id numbers.

The numbers don’t essentially replicate all victims as many are nonetheless lacking below the rubble, the Palestinian Well being Ministry says. In Might it estimated that some 10,000 our bodies had been uncounted on this approach. The Lancet medical journal revealed a letter from three teachers on 5 July estimating that oblique deaths, attributable to components like illness, may imply the loss of life toll is a number of instances greater than official estimates and probably above 186,000.

Israeli officers have mentioned Palestinian figures are suspect due to Hamas’ management over authorities in Gaza. International Ministry spokesperson Oren Mamorstein mentioned the numbers had been manipulated and “do not reflect the reality on the ground”.
Nonetheless, Israel’s navy has additionally accepted in briefings that the general Gaza casualty numbers are broadly dependable.

A Hamas guard who killed an Israeli hostage acted “in revenge” and towards directions after he heard information that his two kids had been killed in an Israeli strike, Reuters studies.

“The (Hamas) soldier assigned as a guard acted in a retaliatory manner, against instructions, after he received information that his two children were martyred in one of the massacres conducted by the enemy,” Hames spokesperson Abu Ubaida mentioned on Telegram.

“The incident doesn’t represent our ethics and the instructions of our religion in dealing with captives. We will reinforce the instructions,” he added.

In a later message on its official Telegram channel, the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, posted: “Your brutality is an imminent danger to your prisoners.”

Israel’s navy mentioned that the person whose physique is proven in a photograph launched by Hamas was a hostage who had been murdered and whose physique had been recovered by the Israeli navy in November.

Abu Ubaida didn’t say when the incident occurred. Reuters speculated that the timing of Hamas’ revelation may very well be an try to extend strain on Israel as ceasefire talks happen in Doha.

Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas advised a particular session of the Turkish parliament that he would journey to Gaza, AFP studies.

“I have decided to go to Gaza with other brothers from the Palestinian leadership,” Abbas mentioned in an deal with applauded by Turkish lawmakers. “I will do that. Even if this would cost my life. Our life is not more worthy than the life of a child,” he added.

Abbas, who added a go to to Turkey after assembly with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow, mentioned the Palestinian folks would stand tall regardless of the Israeli strikes. Abbas, who heads the Fatah Palestinian motion, a rival to Hamas, had already visited Turkey at Erdogan’s invitation in early March.

Ten months of cross-border violence between Hezbollah and Israeli forces has killed senior commanders and almost 400 fighters from the Iran-backed group, inflicting destruction and displacing tens of 1000’s on either side, AFP studies.

Hezbollah has now seen extra fighters killed since October than when it final went to warfare with Israel in the summertime of 2006.

The violence has killed some 570 folks in Lebanon, most of them fighters from Hezbollah, but in addition together with dozens from allied armed teams together with Hamas, in keeping with an AFP tally, with no less than 118 civilians among the many useless.

On the Israeli facet, together with within the annexed Golan Heights, 22 troopers and 26 civilians have been killed, in keeping with navy figures.

Israel has mentioned almost all Israelis evacuated from their houses close to the Gaza Strip within the wake of Hamas’s 7 October assault have returned, AFP studies.

Greater than 80% of the southern Israeli area’s 50,000-plus inhabitants had moved again by July, with 3,700 extra folks returning since, in keeping with the federal government company tasked with reconstruction and rehabilitation of the border communities affected by the lethal assault.

Israeli authorities had supplied evacuees from the Gaza border space lodging in accommodations paid for by the state, however that association expired at this time.

Residents of 10 kibbutz communities that had been badly broken within the Hamas assault will probably be given non permanent housing for no less than one other yr in varied areas, Israel’s Tekuma Authority mentioned in a press release.

A handful of different communities which are very near the Gaza border have been declared unsafe as a result of menace of rocket hearth from the Palestinian territory, it added.

Earlier at this time, 40 far-right Israeli activists tried to interrupt into the Gaza Strip to conduct a Jewish prayer service, however had been stopped by safety providers.

“We were honored to take part in an attempt to hold Shacharit prayers inside the Gaza Strip, with the belief that Gaza is part of the Greater Land of Israel and from the clear understanding that only settlement can be considered a victory,” mentioned a press release by the unnamed group, revealed by the Israeli public broadcaster Kan information.

“And only a Jewish Gaza will remove the threat of rockets, return the hostages from Gaza, and bring security to the south and country as a whole,” the assertion continued.

Earlier this yr the US and EU sanctioned some Israeli settler teams and key people related to them for his or her position in extremist violence towards Palestinians.

The White Home has urged all sides to attend the Gaza ceasefire talks in Doha with a view to get a deal carried out, urging Israel and Hamas to compromise and saying progress remains to be doable in coming days.

Hamas officers, who’ve accused Israel of stalling, haven’t joined at this time’s talks. Nonetheless mediators deliberate to seek the advice of with Hamas’ Doha-based negotiating staff after the assembly, officers advised Reuters.

White Home nationwide safety spokesman John Kirby, in an interview on CNN, additionally mentioned info reveals Iran has not moved off its menace to assault Israel, together with probably by way of proxies. The US is watching the scenario carefully and is ready, although “hopefully it doesn’t come to that,” he mentioned.

Worldwide mediators have began a brand new spherical of talks aimed toward halting the warfare in Gaza and securing the discharge of scores of hostages, Reuters studies citing an official with information of the negotiations.

A deal is seen as the perfect hope of heading off an excellent bigger regional battle. The United States, Qatar and Egypt had been on account of meet with an Israeli delegation in Qatar. Hamas shouldn’t be anticipated to take part instantly however has agreed in precept to a proposal put ahead by the US which has worldwide help.

With the loss of life toll as per the Gaza well being ministry passing 40,000 after 10 months of warfare, the small, densely packed territory is full of our bodies, Related Press studies. Witness accounts and video footage present, the information company says, that our bodies are buried in backyards and parking tons, beneath staircases and alongside roadsides. Others lie below rubble, their households not sure they may ever be counted.

Nonetheless, many of those individuals are not included within the official rely. As Emma Graham Harrison studies, the official figures solely registers these killed by bombs and bullets as warfare useless.

“People who died due to indirect impacts of war, including diseases, starvation and the collapse of the healthcare system, are not included [in the war dead],” Dr Marwan al-Hams, the director of area hospitals on the Palestinian ministry of well being, advised Emma. “A committee will be formed to count these [victims], which will start work immediately after the end of the war.”

Israeli officers query the loss of life toll given by the authorities in Gaza and argue that as a result of Hamas controls the federal government there, its well being officers can not present credible figures. Nonetheless, after a number of conflicts between 2009 and 2021, United Nations investigators drew up their very own lists of the useless and located they carefully matched ones from Gaza.

“Unfortunately, we have the sad experience of coordinating with the Ministry of Health on casualty figures every few years,” Farhan Haq, a spokesperson for the UN secretary normal, has mentioned. “Their figures have proven to be generally accurate.”

A Hamas guard who killed an Israeli hostage on Monday acted ‘in revenge’ towards directions after he obtained information that his two kids had been killed in an Israeli strike, the spokesperson for the group’s armed al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Ubaida, mentioned on Thursday in a submit on Telegram reported by Reuters. The incident doesn’t signify the group’s ethics, he added.

Israel’s spy chief is to affix his US and Egyptian counterparts and Qatar’s prime minister for a brand new spherical of Gaza ceasefire talks within the Qatari capital Doha, Reuters studies.

Israel’s delegation consists of David Barnea, head of the home safety service Ronen Bar and the navy’s hostages chief Nitzan Alon, defence officers mentioned.

CIA director Invoice Burns and US Center East envoy Brett McGurk will signify Washington on the talks, convened by Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, with Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel additionally anticipated in Doha.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri advised Reuters on Thursday that the group is dedicated to the negotiation course of and urged mediators to safe Israel’s dedication to a proposal Hamas agreed to in early July, which he mentioned would finish the warfare and required a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

One of many two males killed within the West Financial institution by an Israeli air strike earlier at this time was a former prisoner of Israel launched in November, AFP studies.

It was the second such fatality inside three days involving a former Palestinian inmate freed throughout a ceasefire within the Gaza warfare.

Wael Misha, 18, was one in every of 240 Palestinian prisoners launched from Israeli jails in November in trade for 105 hostages held in Gaza, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Membership watchdog mentioned.

The trade occurred through the week-long November ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

The Palestinian information company, Wafa mentioned a lady and a toddler had been amongst seven wounded within the strike on Balata. The Israeli navy mentioned two armed militants had been killed in a strike.

A navy adviser from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace pressure has died following accidents sustained in Syria over latest weeks, Iran’s Fars information company, which is managed by the Revolutionary Guard, reported.

“Colonel Ahmadreza Afshari was martyred due to injuries sustained from aerial bombardment from the coalition violating Syria,” Revolutionary Guard commander Hossein Salami mentioned.

Iranian media didn’t give a exact date for the strike, however mentioned Afshari sustained his accidents between late July and early August.

The US and Israel have each carried out strikes in Syria towards Iran-aligned factions, the place Tehran’s affect has grown because it started supporting President Bashar al-Assad in a civil warfare that began in 2011.

Ten months into Israel’s warfare on Gaza, the loss of life toll has handed 40,000, in keeping with well being authorities there. A majority of the useless are civilians and the whole represents almost 2% of Gaza’s prewar inhabitants, or one in each 50 residents.

However even that determine doesn’t inform the complete story of Palestinian losses. “This number, 40,000, includes only bodies that were received and buried,” mentioned Dr Marwan al-Hams, the director of area hospitals on the Palestinian ministry of well being. “New procedures are being tested to include those who are missing or known to be under the rubble on the list of the dead, but they have not yet been approved.”

About 10,000 airstrike victims are thought to stay entombed in collapsed buildings, Hams mentioned, as a result of there may be little heavy tools or gasoline to dig by way of metal and concrete ruins in search of them.

The Guardian has revealed a report about this grim milestone being reached:

Gaza’s well being ministry has introduced that 40,005 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s navy offensive on Gaza following the 7 October assault by Hamas final yr.

The ministry mentioned 92,401 Palestinians had been injured. The vast majority of casualties are civilians, although Gaza’s well being ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its figures.

The IDF has ordered extra evacuations throughout Khan Younis in Gaza.

The IDF’s Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee mentioned in a submit on X: “All residents of Blocks 38, 39, 41, 42 in Al-Qarara 3 and Al-Sathar neighborhoods” within the southeastern Gaza Strip to depart their houses and shelters.

“Against the backdrop of the continuous firing of rockets by Hamas and terrorist organizations from your areas, the [Israeli army] will act forcefully against these terrorist elements immediately.”

Israel has issued quite a few evacuation orders for areas in and surrounding Khan Younis in latest weeks because it continues its offensive in Gaza.