Over 62,000 civilians, 274 journalists killed by Israel
More than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed in the nearly two-year war in the Gaza Strip, local health officials said, as Hamas and Israel reiterated their demands for ending the fighting sparked by the militant group’s 2023 attack.
Local hospitals said that Israeli strikes killed 28 people, mostly women and children, overnight last Thursday, as Israel pressed ahead with the initial stages of its offensive in famine-stricken Gaza City and in the occupied West Bank.
Israelis established a new settlement in the heart of the Palestinian city of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank.
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War.
The Palestinians seek all three territories for a future state and—together with most of the international community—consider the settlements illegal and a major obstacle to peace.
The goal of establishing a settlement in the heart of Hebron’s casbah is to seize new areas of the city and displace Palestinians, much like what has already occurred in the city centre around existing settlements.
‘The settlement in Hebron represents the ugliest face of Israeli control in the territories,’ he said.
The Israeli military attacks in Gaza and the Western Banks of Palestine have killed 63,966 Palestinians since October last year, the Palestinian Ambassador to Ghana, Abdul Fattah Ahmed Khalil al-Sattari, has said.
The statistics also showed that the victims included 25,000 children and 12,000 women, while over 247 journalists, both international and local.
Speaking at a press conference at the Palestinian Embassy in Accra, the Ambassador recounted the devastating impact of Israel’s attacks on Palestinians over the years. He cited
United Nations data indicating that 88 per cent of the victims were helpless, unarmed civilians—including women and children—who had nowhere to run.
Beyond the death toll, he noted that 195,266 civilians had been injured, with some left immobile or disabled in various parts of their bodies.
He added that the atrocities being committed by Israel were unprecedented in human history.
“From October 7, Israel has killed 63,966 of my people, including 25,000 children and 12,000 women.
According to the report of the UN, 88 per cent of the people who were killed in Palestine were civilians.
“There are 195,266 injured by the Israelis. Some of them are left without hands, legs and eyes, among others.
There are more than 10,000 victims reportedly left under the collapsed building due to bomb attacks.
The killing of five more Palestinian journalists in Gaza by Israeli forces—bringing the total number of journalists killed since the war began to 247—should shock the world into action, the UN Human Rights Office said last Tuesday.
OHCHR spokesperson, Thameen Al-Kheetan, said that condemnation of the two Israeli strikes on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis must now be translated into a demand for accountability and justice for all those killed.
Unprecedented coordinated attacks
The Palestinian Ambassador averred that the number of critical sector workers, including doctors, nurses and journalists, killed by Israel had never been recorded in the history of any conflict.
He lamented the coordinated bombings of schools with pupils and students in class, hospitals with helpless patients and health workers, and homes, leaving no safe place for the people of Palestine.
The attacks, according to him, had claimed more than 80 per cent of homes in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, while the remaining survivors had also been left to starve, with more children, especially, dying day by day as a result.
“Last week, for the first time, the UN published a report, and it said there is starvation in Gaza.
This has never happened in the history of the Middle East. For five months, Israel did not allow food and medicine to get to Palestine; they remained at the border.
“Now they drop the food and beam with joy seeing our people struggle for food like animals.
Over the past two months, 320 people died due to starvation, including 121 children and babies.
UNICEF also reports, since October last year that 28 children died every day,” the Ambassador said.
Freedom for Palestine
Mr al-Sattari said the people of Palestine were simply looking for their freedom as they did not want to be controlled by any occupier of their lands.
“We are looking for freedom, and we want to see the end of this worst situation in history.
We don't want anyone to control our lives.
We hate the occupier; we don't hate the Israelis.
We don't hate them because they are Jews. Some of the Jews support Palestine, and they stand with the Palestinian people.
We hate the occupier, and we don't want to see them on our lands,” he said.
He debunked the assertion that the Hamas group was hiding in buildings and attacking Israel, emphasising that it was a deliberate effort to distort the truth and legitimise the coordinated attacks on the Palestinians.
Mr al-Sattari said 147 countries had so far recognised Palestine as a country, with more European countries expected to also recognise Palestine in the next months, as they were now getting to know the truth.
He expressed gratitude to the African Union and the European Union for their support for Palestine.
He thanked the Government of Ghana for donating chocolate products to the people of Palestine, which would be arriving in Palestine on September 9.
