Israel’s war in Gaza has reached a grim new milestone after the Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip said the death toll had passed 40,000 since the war began on October 8.
As of Thursday, Gaza officials said a total of 40,005 people had been killed in the conflict.
The figure does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. However, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said more than 11,000 women and more than 16,000 children were among the dead.
People stand near the graves of family members after bodies were dug up from temporary graves at al-Amal hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, and handed over to their families for burial, July 18, 2024.
Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images
Israel launched its war on Gaza on October 8, the day after a surprise Hamas terrorist attack in southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people, including women and children.
The true death toll in Gaza, after more than 10 months of war, could be significantly higher than the Health Ministry figure, as Gaza officials estimate that an additional 10,000 people are missing because of the war.
Casey Harrity, of Wyoming, who works in Gaza for the non-governmental organization Save the Children, acknowledges that the true death toll from the war is “much higher.”
Harrity, who is the head of the NGO’s team in the Gaza Strip, said Israeli military operations over the past ten months had “squeezed” Gaza’s population “into an incredibly small area.”
In recent days, the Israeli army has dropped leaflets in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, urging civilians to move in anticipation of military operations. The Israeli army’s tactic of displacing civilians has been commonplace since the beginning of the war, meaning that many Gazans have been displaced multiple times and a large portion of the civilian population now lives in large tented settlements.
“Every available piece of land is taken up by tents,” Harrity told ABC News in a video conference interview from his office in Gaza.
“People don’t have toilets. They don’t have running water. They’re living in incredibly dire conditions. And we’re seeing outbreaks in these shelters and camps. We’re seeing really horrific living conditions,” she said.
Harrity said she heard “bombings every night” in Gaza. But she said she was “lucky” to sleep in an apartment building.
“The vast majority of the population lives outside. They have no safe place to go,” she added.
ABC News also spoke with Ghada Al-Haddad, a Palestinian woman from Gaza who works for the Britain-based nonprofit Oxfam.
Palestinian Maryam Abu Obeid, 65, cries as she sits near the makeshift grave of her grandson Khaled, in their home in Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City, August 7, 2024.
Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP via Getty Images
She described how Gaza residents live in constant fear and how families often gather in the same place at night because they would rather be killed together than risk mourning the death of their loved ones.
“When you go to bed, you’re not sure you’re going to make it until morning,” Al-Haddad said in an interview with ABC News.
UN schools in Gaza were seen as “safe spaces” where displaced Palestinian families could seek shelter.
However, the UN Human Rights Office said that “at least” 21 schools in Gaza have been targeted by the Israeli military since early July.
The Israeli military has accused Hamas of “systematically” hiding and operating from schools.
However, Al-Haddad said it was now clear that Gaza’s schools “are no longer safe.”
Both Harrity and Al-Haddad spoke about the suffering of children in Gaza.
Al-Haddad, of the British charity Oxfam, said many children in Gaza are now so used to the brutality of war that they can now tell the difference between the sound of an Israeli air strike and that of an Israeli artillery shell exploding.
She said many children have to walk miles to collect water for their families or to find wood to build a fire for cooking.
“This war is… very serious, very brutal and it… does not end,” Al-Haddad said.
Casey Harrity of Save the Children said innocent witnesses are constantly caught in the crossfire during war.
“Children are more affected by their small bodies. When an explosion like that happens, they’re thrown farther, faster, their bones bend and break,” Harrity told ABC News.
“So children are really the biggest victims of this war,” she added.
The Israeli military said it was taking numerous measures, such as using high-precision weapons and intelligence, to minimize civilian casualties.
ABC News’ Becky Perlow contributed to this report.
