Online Desk : More than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed in the nearly two-year war in the Gaza Strip, local health officials said Thursday. Photo: AFP/File

More than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed in the nearly two-year war in the Gaza Strip, local health officials said Thursday, as Hamas and Israel reiterated their incompatible demands for ending the fighting sparked by the militant group’s 2023 attack, reports AP.

Israeli strikes killed 28 people, mostly women and children, overnight and into Thursday, according to hospitals, as Israel pressed ahead with its offensive in famine-stricken Gaza City.

The latest strikes came as Israeli troops were operating in parts of Gaza City with plans to take over all of it. The most populous Palestinian city is home to around a million people many of whom have already been displaced multiple times.

Shifa Hospital in Gaza City received 25 bodies, including nine children and six women, after Israeli strikes hit tents housing displaced people, according to hospital records. Among those killed was a 10-day-old baby. Another three people were killed in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

Maha Afana said the strikes woke her up in the middle of the night as she slept in a tent in Gaza City with her children. When she checked on them she found the bodies of her son and daughter, drenched with blood. “I started screaming,” she said.

Associated Press footage of the aftermath showed charred tents and debris. The sound of further Israeli bombardment echoed in the background.

“What did those children do to the state of Israel? They didn’t carry a knife or artillery. They were just sleeping,” said Hayam Basous, who lost a relative in the strike.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas, saying militants are entrenched in densely-populated areas.

Death toll rises

Gaza’s Health Ministry said that 64,231 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war. The latest update includes around 400 who were presumed missing but whose deaths it says have been confirmed.

The ministry doesn’t say how many of those killed in the war were militants or civilians. It says women and children make up around half the dead.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. Its figures are seen as a reliable estimate of wartime deaths by UN agencies and many independent experts. Israel has disputed them without providing its own toll.

Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people in their attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Most have since been released in ceasefires or other agreements.