THE ISRAELI military killed at least 710 Palestinian babies before they made it to their first birthday, the equivalent of two infants under one-year-old killed by Israel every day for nearly a year.
That’s according to a 649-page document published by the Ministry of Health in Gaza last Sunday listing the names of tens of thousands of Palestinians killed by Israel between October 7th and August 31st.
Of the 40,738 the ministry has confirmed dead, it has biographical information – including identification number, gender, date of birth, and age – for 34,344.
Because the ministry does not have complete biographical information for the remaining 6,394, it has not listed their names.
The list starts with the youngest victims. For the first 13 and a half pages, the age is listed as 0 – those under one-year-old.
A brief breakdown of the numbers killed:
- Babies (Less than one year old): 710
- Toddlers, 1-3: 1,793
- Children, 4-12: 5,410
- Children, 13-17: 3,442
- Total number under 18 years old killed: 11,355
- Men, 18-40: 10,396
- Women, 18-40: 4,540
- Men, 41-59: 3,341
- Women, 41-59: 1,757
- Men, 60 and over: 1,818
- Women, 60 and over: 1,137
While the Biden administration, Israeli authorities, and others have repeatedly cast doubt on the health ministry’s figures, those numbers have proven accurate in past conflicts.
Both the United Nations and even Israel’s intelligence services have accepted them.
The health ministry managed to compile its latest data under trying circumstances.
Only 15 of Gaza’s 38 hospitals remain functional, as daily casualties continue to rise.
While the ministry works quickly to correct any discrepancies or errors in its numbers, the overwhelming volume of its data has proven accurate.
Each day, the ministry publishes a bulletin with the number of dead and wounded from the previous 24 hours.
The latest bulletin published on September 17th brings the total number of Palestinians killed to 41,252 with an additional 95,497 wounded.
But the bulletins also note every day that many of the victims remain buried under rubble, making it impossible for ambulances or civil-defence crews to reach them.
The true number of dead is far higher and remains unknown.
More than 17,224 students have also been wounded in the regime’s genocidal war on the Palestinian territory, according to the ministry figures.
In the West Bank, 113 students were killed and 548 injured.
About 429 students have also been kidnapped by the regime’s forces in the occupied city.
The Education Ministry released the figure more than a week after the school year officially began, while all schools in the besieged territory shut.
Israel’s military forces have so far destroyed 123 schools and universities in Gaza, according to the Gaza government media office.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which runs around half of Gaza’s schools, warned earlier that ‘the longer the children stay out of school the more difficult it is for them to catch up on their lost learning and the more prone they are to becoming a lost generation’.
When the regime launched its savage offensive on Gaza almost one year ago, UNRWA transformed its schools into emergency shelters for families forced to flee their homes.
The vast majority of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once by Israel’s genocidal war.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Health Ministry has condemned the death of a Palestinian doctor during his detention in an Israeli jail, calling for Israel to be held accountable for its crimes against medical staff in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The ministry made the remarks in a statement on Wednesday, after Dr Ziad Muhammad al-Dalu, who was detained while performing his duty at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, lost his life in an Israeli prison as a result of severe torture.
‘The Ministry condemns this heinous crime against Palestinian medical staff, and considers targeting health cadres while performing their humanitarian duty a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and all international conventions,’ the statement said.
‘The continuation of these violations against health workers is a systematic targeting of the Palestinian people and their institutions, and the ministry stresses the need to hold the Israeli occupation accountable before the international community for its crimes against medical staff and civilians,’ it added.
Dr Ziad Muhammad al-Dalu, deputy director of the internal medicine department at Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in Gaza, had been arrested by Israeli forces on March 19th, 2024.
Back in August, the ministry said nearly 500 medical workers have been killed and hundreds more sustained injuries in the Gaza Strip ever since the Israeli military launched its devastating war against the coastal sliver in early October last year.
Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7th after Palestinian resistance groups carried out a surprise retaliatory operation into the occupied territories in response to the relentless atrocities against the Palestinian people.
Since the start of the aggression, Israel has killed at least 41,252 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Another 95,497 Palestinians have sustained injuries as well.
On Wednesday, medical crews recovered 10 slain Palestinians from areas north of Rafah city.
Medical sources reported that the bodies of five people were recovered from homes targeted by the occupation in Al-Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip.
They added that five civilians were killed as a result of the Israeli occupation bombing of Khirbet al-Adas area.
The occupation forces also blew up residential buildings in the city of al-Zahraa in the Nuseirat camp, while the occupation’s aircraft targeted the eastern areas of al-Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City.
