The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza on Saturday said more than 70,000 people have been killed since the Israeli forces began aggression in Gaza 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.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Red Crescent said that 10 Palestinians were injured on Saturday in clashes with Israeli settlers near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

‘Ten injuries during settler attacks in the Khala’il al-Luz area south of Bethlehem, including one injury from live ammunition, and nine injuries from beatings,’ the rescue service said in a statement.

The Israeli army said in a joint statement with the police that its forces ‘were dispatched to the outskirts of Bethlehem, following a report of a violent confrontation between Israeli civilians and Palestinians’.

The clashes involved ‘stone hurling between Palestinians and Israelis at the scene, as well as gunfire in the area toward the Palestinians,’ the statement said.

To halt the clashes, Israeli forces employed ‘crowd dispersal methods’ and declared a ‘closed military zone in the area’, the military said.

‘Several Israeli civilians were injured but refused medical treatment,’ the statement added.

Gaza health ministry said that since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10, 354 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli fire.

Two bodies arrived at hospitals in the Gaza Strip in the past 48 hours, the ministry said, one of which had been recovered from beneath the rubble.

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.

The Gaza aggression was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people.

On that day, Hamas abducted 251 people into Gaza.

At the start of the latest ceasefire, militants were holding 20 living hostages and 28 bodies of deceased captives.

Hamas has since 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.