Above photo: Palestinians injured in an Israeli airstrike in Bureij refugee camp brought to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital for treatment in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, October 2, 2024. Omar Ashtawy/APA Images.
Israel has killed 150 people across Gaza since Iran launched its retaliatory ballistic missile attack against Israel.
Casualties
- 41,788 + killed* and at least 96,794 wounded in the Gaza Strip. 32,280 of the slain have been identified, including 10,627 children and 5,956 women, representing 60% of the casualties, and 2,770 elderly as of August 6, 2024. Some 10,000 more are estimated to be under the rubble*
- 722+ Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This includes at least 146 children.**
- 1,974 Lebanese killed and more than 9,384 wounded by Israeli forces since October 8, 2023***
- Israel revised its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,140.
- The Israeli army recognizes the death of 716 Israeli soldiers and the injury of at least 4,100 others since October 7.****
* Gaza’s branch of the Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed this figure in its daily report, published through its WhatsApp channel on October 3, 2024. Rights groups and public health experts estimate the death toll to be much higher.
** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. This is the latest figure according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health as of October 1, 2024.
*** This figure was released by the Lebanese Health Ministry, updated on October 3, 2024. The counting is based on the Lebanese official date for the beginning of “the Israeli aggression on Lebanon,” when Israel began airstrikes on Lebanese territory after the beginning of Hezbollah’s “support front” for Gaza.
**** These figures are released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.” Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported on August 4, 2024, that some 10,000 Israeli soldiers and officers have been either killed or wounded since October 7. The head of the Israeli army’s wounded association told Israel’s Channel 12 that the number of wounded Israeli soldiers exceeds 20,000, including at least 8,000 who have been permanently handicapped as of June 1. Israel’s Channel 7 reported that according to the Israeli war ministry’s rehabilitation service numbers, 8,663 new wounded joined the army’s handicap rehabilitation system since October 7 and as of June 18.
Key Developments
- Gaza branch of Palestinian Health Ministry says death toll surpasses 41,788, with 96,794 wounded since October 7, including 33% children, 18.4% women, and 8.6% elderly; at least 115 Palestinian children born and killed by Israeli forces since October 7.
- Palestinian Health Ministry says death toll by Israeli army or settlers in West Bank and Jerusalem reaches 722 since October 7.
- Lebanese Ministry of Health says 1,974 Lebanese people killed, over 9,384 wounded in hundreds of Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon, especially in the south and the Beqaa Valley since the beginning of escalating hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel began in September 2024.
- Iran strikes Israel with at least 180 ballistic missiles in response of the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hasan Nasrallah in Beirut.
- The Israeli army admits damage to airfields and bases during Iran attack, says infrastructure of bases was not affected.
- Biden says that he is discussing retaliation options against Iran with Israel, reiterates opposition to strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities as Netanyahu pledges retaliation against Iran.
- Iranian president Masoud Pezashkian says Iran will make a “harsher response” in the event of an Israeli retaliation, adds that Iran doesn’t seek war with Israel.
- Israeli army admits eight soldiers killed, including three officers, alongside injury of 35 others, in first 24 hours of Israeli ground operations in southern Lebanon.
- Israel conducts 20 strikes on Beirut’s southern Dahiya district, continues striking towns across Lebanon.
- Nine Israelis killed on Tuesday in Tel Aviv in shooting attack carried out by two Palestinians from Hebron; Israeli forces raid and seal off Hebron following attack, arresting family members of the two shooters.
- UN secretary general Antonio Guterres warns against expansion of Israeli settlements in West Bank, condemns “broadening of the Middle East conflict with escalation after escalation” after Iran’s missile attack on Israel.
- Israel declares Guterres persona non grata for failure to “unequivocally” condemn Iran missile attack.
- Israeli strikes kill 150 Palestinians across Gaza Strip in two days.
- Oxfam says in report that more women and children killed by Israeli military in Gaza than in any other recent conflict in a single year.
Iran Retaliates Against Israel
The U.S. is discussing the nature of Israel’s response to Iran’s missile strikes last Tuesday, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday, adding that he does not support an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Biden’s remarks came a day after Iran launched a large missile attack against Israeli targets on Tuesday in response to Israel’s assassination of Hamas’s politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in late July, as well as the assassination of Hezbollah’s Secretary General, Hasan Nasrallah, and the Deputy Commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, Abbas Nilforushan, according to the IRGC.
Israeli media reported that 180 missiles struck Israeli targets on Tuesday, many of which were allegedly intercepted by Israeli air defenses. Since Tuesday, a large amount of video footage taken by individuals has circulated on the internet, showing dozens of missiles falling and exploding in Israel.
The Israeli army recognized on Wednesday that Iranian rockets caused damage to its airfields and bases, while stressing that the damage didn’t reach their infrastructure. Axios quoted an unnamed Israeli army official saying that several Iranian rockets targeted the Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv, but that none fell inside the Mossad compound.
ِAlthough Israeli censorship bans the publication of details or images of Israeli casualties or damage sustained by the attack, the Israeli municipality of Hod Hasharon, near Tel Aviv, said that some 100 buildings were damaged by Iranian rockets, some of them suffering damage that “will take a long time to repair.”
Meanwhile, Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised speech from an underground shelter hours after the Iranian attack that “Iran made a big mistake,” vowing that “it will pay the price.” For his part, the Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said during a visit to Qatar that Iran “does not seek a war” with Israel, while pledging “a harsher response” if Israel attacks Iran again.
On Wednesday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned of “the expansion of the conflict in the Middle East with an escalation after the other,” calling for an immediate ceasefire.
Eight Israeli Soldiers Killed In South Lebanon Fighting
The Israeli army admitted to the killing of 8 of its soldiers, including three officers, and the wounding of 30 other soldiers, in the first round of face-to face combat with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, three days after it announced the beginning of a “limited” ground offensive in southern Lebanese territory. The Israeli army’s Arabic-speaking spokesperson had ordered Lebanese civilians in a number of border towns and villages to leave their homes as the Israeli army had also evacuated several areas on the Israeli side of the border, declaring them “military zones” while concentrating large forces at the border.
On Tuesday, the Israeli army announced that it had begun ground operations in southern Lebanon and that its forces were engaged in heavy fighting with Hezbollah units. Hezbollah denied the Israeli claims through its spokesperson, Muhammad Afif, who said that no Israeli forces had entered Lebanon. On Wednesday, however, the military wing of Hezbollah confirmed that Israeli forces had crossed the “Blue Line” — the demarcation delineating Israeli and Lebanese territory — and that its fighters had clashed with Israeli forces in the areas of Maroun al-Ras and Idaiseh, inflicting casualties.
According to Hezbollah reports, its fighters engaged Israeli soldiers and armored vehicles near the towns of Yaroun, Kufr Kila, and Maroun al-Ras, allegedly destroying three tanks and killing and wounding an unspecified number of soldiers.
The Israeli public broadcaster reported that an Israeli force fell into a Hezbollah ambush in the southern Lebanese town of Idaiseh, suffering numerous casualties, while the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot said that Israeli forces were fighting Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah, however, said in a statement that the Radwan Force had not yet entered the battle and that its regular forces were the only ones fighting so far.
Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes on Lebanese towns continued across southern Lebanon, the Beqaa Valley, Mount Lebanon, and Beirut throughout the week. On Thursday, an Israeli strike on the Bashoura neighborhood in Beirut killed nine people.
Since the beginning of Israel’s offensive on Lebanon on October 8, 2023, Israel has killed 1,974 Lebanese, wounded 9,384, and displaced 1.2 million, according to Lebanese authorities.
Massacres In Gaza Continue
Israeli strikes killed 150 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip in the past 48 hours, according to the Gaza branch of the Palestinian Health Ministry. Local media reports indicated that Israeli strikes targeted houses and shelters for the displaced since Tuesday, October 1.
In Khan Younis, Israeli warplanes destroyed a residential block that included a four-floor building, killing an unspecified number of Palestinians, including 13 members of a single family. In the Tuffah neighborhood in eastern Gaza City, an Israeli strike targeted the Masqat school sheltering displaced families, killing 17 people. In the Rimal neighborhood in central Gaza City, another airstrike on the Amal al-Aytam College, which was also used as a shelter for the displaced, killed 10 people. In Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip, an Israeli strike on an open area where displaced families concentrated killed nine people, including a young girl.
On Tuesday, Oxfam concluded in a report that “more women and children have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military over the past year than the equivalent period of any other conflict over the past two decades.” The report pointed out that during the past 12 months in Gaza, an Israeli explosive weapon has hit a home in Gaza every four hours, a tent or temporary shelter every 17 hours, schools and hospitals every four days, and aid distribution points and warehouses every 15 days.