THE DEATH toll from Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip has reached 72,317, Gaza’s health ministry reported yesterday, as fresh attacks killed a 13-year-old girl inside a school and a young man in a drone strike, while the number of journalists killed since the war began rose to 262.
The ministry said 172,158 people have now been wounded since the genocide began on 7th October 2023.
Over the 24 hours leading up to Thursday, hospitals received two bodies and 21 wounded.
At least 738 Palestinians have been killed and 2,036 injured since a ceasefire agreement took effect on 10th October 2025, with violations now continuing for 180 consecutive days.
In Beit Lahia, in the north, a girl named Ritaj Rayhan was shot dead by Israeli forces while attending lessons inside an educational tent used as a classroom at Abu Obeida ibn al-Jarrah School. She was 13 years old.
In the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, 33-year-old Yousef Mansour was killed in an Israeli drone strike.
Elsewhere, an elderly woman was injured in an Israeli artillery attack east of al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, and another woman was shot in the back by fire from Israeli military vehicles inside Tel az-Zaatar School in Beit Lahia at dawn.
Israeli tanks also opened heavy machinegun fire towards eastern areas of Gaza, including Khan Younis, where drones flew at low altitude amid relentless gunfire north east of the city.
On Wednesday, the Government Media Office announced that journalist Mohammad Sameer Washah, a correspondent for Al-Jazeera Mubasher, had been killed in an Israeli attack, bringing the total number of journalists killed since the start of the genocide to 262.
The office condemned the systematic targeting of Palestinian journalists and held Israel, along with the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and France, fully responsible for their deaths.
It urged the International Federation of Journalists, the Arab Journalists Union and media organisations worldwide to denounce the killings, and called on the international community to hold those responsible accountable in international courts and to apply effective pressure to stop the genocide and protect journalists in the Strip.