Two more children killed in Israeli airstrike
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza on Saturday said more than 70,000 people have been killed since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted more than two years ago.
The milestone comes as a fragile US-brokered ceasefire largely holds, but with both sides accusing the other of violating the terms of the deal.
In a statement, Gaza's health ministry said the death toll from the war had risen to 70,100.
The ministry said that since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10, 354 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli fire.
They include two children who were killed in an Israeli attack yesterday.
The children's uncle said an Israeli drone fired on Fadi and Goma Abu Assi, brothers aged 10 and 12, while they were gathering firewood to help their wheelchair-bound father east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
"They are children...what did they do? They do not have missiles or bombs, they went to gather wood for their father so he can start a fire," Mohamed Abu Assi told Reuters as their funeral took place.
At the funeral, the children's father wept over the body of one of the boys whose white shroud had been peeled back to show his face.
It noted that the spike from the last death toll was due to the fact that the data relating to 299 bodies had been processed and approved by the authorities.
Despite the ceasefire, the Palestinian territory remains in a deep humanitarian crisis.
According to the terms of ceasefire. Hamas has released all the living hostages and returned the remains of 26 dead hostages.
In exchange, Israel has released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in its custody and returned the bodies of hundreds of dead Palestinians.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces have wounded more than 200 Palestinians in raids on the West Bank governorate of Tubas, as a major offensive on northern parts of the occupied territory that began on Wednesday continues to inflict widespread destruction.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) told Al Jazeera that 78 of the people wounded in Israeli attacks on Tubas since Wednesday required treatment in hospital.
After withdrawing from Tammun and Far'a refugee camp on Friday, Israeli soldiers have shifted the focus of raids to the city of Tubas, as well as the nearby villages of Aqqaba and Tayaseer.
Local officials said Israeli forces have detained nearly 200 Palestinians in the past four days. Most were interrogated on site and let go, but at least eight people were arrested and taken to Israeli military jails.
Violent raids by Israeli soldiers and attacks by armed settlers have escalated since October 2023, with 47 army incursions taking place on average every day across the occupied West Bank in November.
