The number of people killed in Gaza during Israel‘s deadly offensive in the Palestinian enclave is significantly higher than the figures reported by local health authorities, researchers at a leading health university in Britain have found.
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In the peer-reviewed study that was published last week in The Lancet journal, researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said they estimated that as many as 64,260 people were killed in the first nine months of the war.
That would be around 41% higher than the official figure of 37,877 reported by the Palestinian health ministry for that time.
Israeli strikes have killed at least 71 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, since the ceasefire agreement was announced yesterday, Gaza’s Civil Defense said this morning.
Another 200 people were injured, said spokesperson Mahmoud Basal.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News. Israel has consistently denied targeting civilians throughout the war and said it is acting to destroy Hamas.
At least 15 people were killed and more than 20 injured in strikes that hit a residential block north of Gaza city late last night, the civil defense said earlier on Telegram.
Two more bodies were recovered in central Gaza city, the civil defense said this morning. It also said five others were killed and more than 10 were injured from the same family after a house was struck west of Gaza city.
A senior Hamas official has said the group is committed to the ceasefire deal reached yesterday, after Israel claimed the group was reneging on the deal.
“Hamas is committed to the ceasefire agreement, which was announced by the mediators,” Izzat al-Rishq said in a Telegram post.
Members of Hamas’ armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, in Khan Younis last night.Bashar Taleb / AFP – Getty Images
Another senior official, Sami Abu Zuhri, told Al-Arabiya TV that “there is no basis for Netanyahu’s allegations that the movement has backed down from the terms of the ceasefire agreement.”
He claimed that Israel “wants to create a state of tension at a critical time and we demand that it be obligated to implement the agreement.”
Bashar Taleb / AFP via Getty Images
Bashar Taleb / AFP via Getty Images
Bashar Taleb / AFP via Getty Images
People watched the live broadcast of the Qatari Prime Minister announcing a ceasefire deal, as they gathered inside a tent in Khan Younis, southern Gaza late last night.
Now that Israel and Hamas have signed a ceasefire, “the priority must be to ease the tremendous suffering,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
“The United Nations stands ready to support the implementation of this deal and scale up the delivery of sustained humanitarian relief to the countless Palestinians who continue to suffer,” he told reporters yesterday, calling the humanitarian situation “catastrophic.”
“It is imperative that this ceasefire removes the significant security and political obstacles to delivering aid across Gaza so that we can support a major increase in urgent lifesaving humanitarian support,” Guterres said.
Adi Alexander, whose son Edan is among the American hostages held by Hamas, spoke with NBC News after the ceasefire and hostage agreement was announced.
Israel has said that its cabinet, which had been expected to meet today, will not vote on the ceasefire deal as it claimed Hamas had reneged and created a “last-minute crisis.”
Hamas said in a statement that it was “committed to the ceasefire agreement, which was announced by the mediators.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office had said the militant group had reneged on parts of the agreement “in an effort to extort last-minute concessions.” It was not clear which aspects of the deal Israel was referring to.
The Israeli cabinet “will not convene until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all elements of the agreement,” the prime minister’s office said.
The earliest a ceasefire can come into effect is Friday, after it is approved by the Israeli cabinet. The country’s Supreme Court would then have 24 hours to allow an appeal and the first hostages would come out on Sunday, a diplomatic source in Washington previously told NBC News.
