The number of people killed in Israel’s genocidal air attacks on the Gaza Strip have passed 9,200, including more than three thousand children, with the regime’s ground troops having surrounded the Gaza City now.
The Gaza-based health ministry said Friday that the death toll hit 9,250, including 3,826 children and 2,405 women.
Palestinian health officials said they also received 2,100 missing persons reports, since the regime launched its bombing campaign on the besieged territory after it was caught off-guard by Operation Al-Aqsa Storm by the resistance movement Hamas on October 7.
The number of people wounded in the air attacks has also passed 23,000.
The health ministry said that an Israeli strike killed 14 Palestinians who were fleeing from the bombarded territory’s north to its south.
“The occupation committed a new massacre against displaced civilians and killed 14 citizens, children and women,” ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said in a statement on Friday.
Witnesses said the strike hit Gaza’s coastal road, which the Israeli military has previously told civilians to take to travel south.
The health officials called on people inside the territory to donate blood for the wounded. They also called on the International Community of Red Cross to send blood from outside the besieged territory.
Meanwhile, the United Nations launched an emergency aid appeal, seeking $1.2 billion to help some 2.7 million people facing a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip — one of the most densely-populated places on earth.
A group of UN-mandated human rights experts warned Thursday that “time is running out to prevent genocide and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.”
US will never leave Israel alone: Blinken
On Friday, Israel said its ground troops surrounded Gaza City as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv for his second trip since Israel started the war against Gaza.
Ahead of his arrival, Israel’s military said it had “completed the encirclement” of Gaza’s largest city.
The US diplomat has once again reiterated Washington’s support for the occupying regime, saying Israel will “never stand alone.”
He said that the regime “has not only the right but the obligation to defend itself… to make sure that this October 7 never happens again.”
‘Israeli troops will go home in black bags’
Palestinian resistance fighters from the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades warned on Friday that Israel’s invading forces would go home “in black bags.”
“Gaza will be the curse of history for Israel,” said spokesman Abu Obeida.
