The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza says more than 50,000 people have been killed by Israel’s bombardment and invasion of the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian death toll, which slowed for two months due to a ceasefire, has dramatically increased since Israel restarted its attacks on March 18.
The Ministry says Israeli fire has killed 673 people and injured 1,233 since then.
More than 200 of those killed were children.
People carry the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
The Ministry also says the names of 233 missing persons were added to the toll after their deaths were confirmed by a judicial committee.
The toll counts all those confirmed killed since Israel began a bombardment and invasion in response to the Hamas-led October 7 attacks in southern Israel, in which nearly 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.
Israel’s government and military have said the death toll is inflated and that the ministry is compromised because it operates under the Hamas-run government of Gaza.
The health ministry says Israeli fire has killed 673 people, including more than 200 children, since restarting its attacks on March 18.
International experts and agencies have nevertheless said the ministry’s methodology is sound.
Israel’s military has continued its bombardment of Gaza and troops are moving deeper into the strip from the north, centre and south.
The military said it has been targeting Hamas leaders with its strikes and tries to reduce civilian casualties.
The Israeli Defence Minister, Israel Katz, said on Friday he had instructed troops to seize more land in Gaza and that Israel would annex it if Hamas refuses to release more hostages.
Two days earlier, on March 19, he warned Gazans that the renewed assault would be worse than the extensive death and damage already suffered in Gaza, if the hostages weren’t released and Hamas was not “eliminated”.
“The alternative is complete destruction and devastation,” Mr Katz said.
Hamas says political leader killed in strike
Israel continued its strikes on the Palestinian enclave on Sunday, six days after the Israeli Defence Force began its renewed offensive in Gaza.
Explosions were heard in north, central and southern Gaza Strip in the early hours of the day, as Israeli planes hit several targets in those areas in what witnesses said was an escalation of the attacks that began earlier in the week.
At least 30 Palestinians had been killed in Israeli strikes on Rafah and Khan Younis so far on Sunday, authorities from the Hamas-run health department said.
Those killed included three municipal employees, medics said.
Among the victims of a strike on Sunday was one of Hamas’ political leaders, Salah al-Bardaweel, the militant group said.
Bardaweel was a member of the Hamas decision-making body, the political office, and had held posts such as heading the Hamas delegation for indirect truce talks with Israel in 2009 and led the group’s media office in 2005.
“His blood, that of his wife and martyrs, will remain fuelling the battle of liberation and independence,” the group said.
Israel’s military did not respond to a request for comment.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said the main aim of the war is to destroy Hamas as a military and governing entity.
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