Gaza death toll tops 70,000 as Israeli strikes continue despite truce agreement

The death toll in Gaza has surged beyond a haunting 70,000, the territory’s Health Ministry said on Saturday, as Israeli strikes continued to reverberate through the shattered enclave, defying a US-brokered ceasefire that was meant to still the guns only weeks ago, the Al Jazeera reported.

The figures, stark and staggering, mark one of the darkest chapters since the war erupted on 7 October 2023, with more than 170,900 people wounded amid the relentless bombardment.

Even under the fragile shadow of the truce, the sounds of war echoed across Gaza’s devastated landscape. In Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis, medics reported that two young brothers — Juma and Fadi Tamer Abu Assi — succumbed to injuries inflicted by an Israeli drone strike.

Witnesses said a bomb was dropped near al-Farabi School as civilians moved through the area, which lies beyond the so-called Yellow Line demarcating Israeli redeployment under the ceasefire terms. The boys were rushed to Nasser Medical Complex, where doctors could do nothing more than pronounce their deaths, the Al Jazeera reported.

Throughout Saturday, waves of Israeli ground, naval and aerial attacks swept across multiple parts of the Strip. Artillery fire and airstrikes left three Palestinians injured in al-Qarara, while raids tore through the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City and struck eastern Rafah, adding new scars to a landscape already heavily burdened by destruction.

These latest attacks came just a day after Nasser Medical Complex confirmed yet another fatality from drone fire beyond the Yellow Line in Bani Suheila — a pattern officials in Gaza say underscores a widening breach of the ceasefire’s parameters.

Ismail al-Thawabta, head of the Government Media Office in Gaza, said on Friday that authorities had documented 535 violations of the agreement since it began. He warned that the humanitarian situation was “deteriorating at an unprecedented rate,” with the continuing strikes pulverising vital infrastructure and crippling essential services across the region.

Amid the rubble and the rising toll, Gaza’s suffering continues to deepen, even as the ceasefire meant to offer respite remains overshadowed by the enduring thunder of war.