Death toll in Israeli attacks on Gaza rises to 25,700

The Palestinian death toll from Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7 has jumped to 25,700, the Health Ministry in the blockaded enclave said on Wednesday.

The ministry in a statement said 63,740 others have also been injured.

Israeli forces committed 24 massacres across the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, killing 210 people and wounding 386 others, the statement said, adding: "Many people are still trapped under rubble and on the roads and rescuers cannot reach them."

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border incursion by Palestinian group Hamas last October, in which nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed.

About 85% of Gazans have since been displaced, all of them are food insecure and the health system is collapsing. Hundreds of thousands of people are living without shelter, and ⁠less than half of aid trucks are entering the territory than before the start of the conflict.

The people of Gaza not only risk being killed or injured by relentless bombardments, but they also run a growing chance of contracting infectious diseases, UN chief Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday.