Palestinian death toll reaches 40,861 since October 7th, Gaza health ministry reports

More than 40,861 Palestinians have been killed and 94,398 have been wounded in Israel’s military offensive on Gaza since on October 7th, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
The war in Gaza was triggered by the Hamas assault on southern Israel, when its fighters killed 1,200 people and captured more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Earlier, the main United Nations agency for Palestinians said it was making good progress in rolling out a polio vaccine to children in Gaza, but called for a permanent ceasefire in the 11-month war to ease humanitarian suffering.
UNRWA said that three days into the campaign in areas of central Gaza around 187,000 children have received the vaccine. The campaign will move to other areas of the enclave in the second stage.
The campaign was triggered by the discovery of a case of polio in a baby boy last month, the first in Gaza in 25 years. Israel and Hamas militants agreed to daily pauses of eight hours in the fighting in pre-specified areas to allow the vaccination programme. No violations have been reported.
“Great progress! Every day in the Middle Areas of #Gaza, more children are getting vaccines against #Polio,” the head of the global relief agency, Philippe Lazzarini, said on X.
“While these polio “pauses” are giving people some respite, what is urgently needed is a permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages + the standard flow of humanitarian supplies including medical and hygiene supplies,” he said.
Palestinians say a key reason for the return of polio is the collapse of the health system and the destruction of most of Gaza’s hospitals. Israel accuses Hamas of using hospitals for military purposes, which the Islamist group denies.
On Tuesday, COGAT, an Israeli defence ministry agency tasked with coordinating aid deliveries into Palestinian territories, said since the beginning of the war, it has facilitated the entry of 282,126 vials of the polio vaccine, enough for 2,821,260 people.
It also said in a statement that approximately 554,512 vials of vaccines have entered the Gaza Strip, which is enough for 4,973,736 individual vaccines for various diseases and potential epidemics in the Gaza Strip.
Gaza has a population of about 2.3 million people.
Despite the success of the polio campaign, diplomatic efforts to secure a permanent ceasefire, release hostages held in Gaza and return many Palestinians jailed by Israel, have faltered.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted on Monday that Israeli troops would remain in the Philadelphi corridor on the southern edge of Gaza, one of the main sticking points in reaching a deal.
Hamas, which wants any agreement to end the war to include all Israeli forces out of Gaza, says such a condition, among some others, would prevent an accord. Netanyahu says war can only end when Hamas is eradicated.
The impasse is frustrating Israel’s international allies and the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued to battle Hamas-led fighters in several areas of the enclave, saying they had killed many senior Hamas operatives and struck military infrastructure and command centers in the past day.
The armed wing of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said their fighters confronted Israeli troops in north and south of the territory, with anti-tank rockets, mortar fire and explosive devices.
In Khan Younis, an Israeli air strike killed two Palestinians, including a girl, medics said, while an air strike in Darraj suburb of Gaza City killed a local doctor in his house.
In Denmark, police apprehended activist Greta Thunberg at a Copenhagen protest against the war in Gaza, a spokesperson for the student group organising the demonstration said.
Six people were detained at the scene at the Copenhagen University after some 20 people had blocked the entrance to a building and three entered, a police spokesperson said.
Police declined to confirm the identities of any of those arrested but a spokesperson for the Students Against the Occupation said Ms Thunberg had been held.
A picture of Thunberg published by daily Ekstra Bladet showed her wearing what the newspaper said were handcuffs. – Reuters
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