A Geneva-based rights group says about 100,000 Palestinians have been killed, reported missing or wounded since the Israeli occupation regime launched its genocidal war in the besieged Gaza Strip in early October.
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor announced the tally in a statement on Saturday as Israel’s brutal aggression on the besieged Palestinian territory hits the 100-day mark.
“A total of 31,497 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been killed as of today, 13 January 2024,” the rights group said.
“Of those killed in the Israeli air and artillery attacks on the Strip, 28,951 (92%) were civilians, including 12,345 children, 6,471 women, 295 health personnel, 41 civil defense personnel, and 113 journalists. Meanwhile, 61,079 individuals have been injured, hundreds of them critically.”
The Euro-Med Monitor also reported that about 1.955 million Palestinians, approximately 85% of the total population of the Gaza Strip, have been displaced from their homes and residential areas amid a lack of safe shelters.
The statement added that 69,700 housing units have been completely destroyed and 187,300 housing units have been partially damaged.
“The facilities that have been targeted by Israel during its ongoing attacks include 320 schools; 1,671 industrial facilities; 183 health facilities, including 23 hospitals, 59 clinics, and 92 ambulances; 239 mosques; three churches; and 170 press offices,” the Euro-Med Monitor said.
Stressing that the occupying regime continues to escalate its military assaults against Palestinian civilians in Gaza, the Geneva-based organization said the Israeli aggression is “in violation of international law,” and “likely amounts to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.”
The Euro-Med Monitor underlined that Israel is deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure in order to cause as many casualties, material losses, and as much general destruction as possible as a form of retaliation and collective punishment.
“Israel has flagrantly broken the terms of international humanitarian law, which forbids property damage as a ‘preventive means’ and property destruction as a means of deterrence, even for military purposes,” the statement said.
“This is against international humanitarian law, the 1949 Geneva Convention, and amounts to war crimes according to the Rome Statute, which governs the International Criminal Court,” it added.
The Israeli regime waged the war on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas-led Palestinian resistance groups carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s atrocities against Palestinians.
Since the start of the aggression, Israel has reportedly dropped 29,000 bombs, munitions and shells on Gaza, with Palestinian resistance groups launching some 14,000 rockets towards the occupied territories.
The Tel Aviv regime has also imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food, and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.
