Israeli Aggression Kills Nearly 1 Percent of Gaza's Population, Most Brutal in History
The Ministry of Health in Gaza noted that as of Sunday (24/12/2023) 20.258 Gazans had died with 53.688 other people injured as a result of Israel's brutal aggression into the Palestinian Gaza Strip since 7 October. This number is almost one percent (23 thousand people) of the total population of Gazans before the Israeli aggression which was recorded at 2,3 million people.
The Associated Press said this was the highest number of fatalities in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which lasted for more than half a century. As many as 70 percent of the total 20.258 people killed in the Gaza Strip were children (around 8.200 children) and women.
Apart from Gaza, Israel also attacked the Palestinian West Bank. Al Jazeera reported that in the same period, Israeli attacks on the West Bank killed 303 people and injured 3.450 others.
The death toll from Israeli aggression over the past two months has even exceeded the death toll from Russia's invasion of Ukraine which has been underway since February 2022. At the end of November, the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Commission reported that there were at least 10 thousand Ukrainian civilians, including 560 children have died due to the Russian invasion since 2022.
A number of analysts say that Israel's brutal aggression against Gaza has become so deadly because the Gaza Strip is a very densely populated area. Therefore, every air attack launched by Israel on civilian settlements is capable of causing an untold number of casualties.
Apart from that, Israel deliberately targets refugee camps, settlements, schools and hospitals in its air strikes. Israel claims these places are hiding places for Hamas command centers and tunnels, although to date this claim has never been proven.
According to AP, Israel's air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip over the past almost two months have also been the most devastating military aggression in recent history. “Israel's air and ground attacks have been one of the most devastating military campaigns in recent history, displacing nearly 85% of Gaza's 2,3 million residents and leveling large swaths of the coastline,” the AP report said.
Currently, Israel's brutal aggression has also caused a quarter of Gaza's population to suffer from acute hunger because access to clean water and food aid was difficult during the aggression. Human Rights Watch even accused Israel of deliberately starving Gaza residents as one of its aggressive strategies against the territory controlled by the Palestinian Hamas militia. This kind of strategy, according to HRW, is an act of war crime. [Source: CNN Indonesia]
