Gaza Health Ministry: 27,365 Palestinians Killed, 66,630 Injured Since October 7

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said Sunday that 27,365 Palestinians have been killed and 66,630 have been injured by the Israeli attacks on the territory since October 7.

The ministry also reported that 127 Palestinians had been killed in the previous 24 hours and 178 were injured.

Thousands of people took to the streets Saturday across Israel, calling for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step down and new elections because the government has not yet devised plans for the return of hostages and an end to the war.

The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday on X, formerly Twitter, that its troops found “AK-47 rifles, ammunition, military equipment, and technological assets,” plus rocket-propelled grenades in a compound in Khan Younis.

In northern Gaza, the IDF said it found: “7 AK-47 rifles, 3 pistols, military equipment, ammunition, and grenades” in the residences of terrorists.

The European Union expressed deep concern Saturday over reports that the Israeli military intends to push on against Hamas all the way to Rafah.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned the conflict is likely to spread throughout the region unless a cease-fire is agreed upon by Israel and Hamas, after U.S. airstrikes hit dozens of sites in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian-backed militias and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Borrell said that about 1 million Palestinians “have been displaced progressively against the Egyptian border” and will have nowhere to go if Israel takes its ground war there. Borrell spoke of a “very dire situation” in Rafah.

The United Nations said the town is becoming a “pressure cooker of despair.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is traveling to the region Sunday in an effort to find a diplomatic solution to the war.

Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza cities of Rafah and Deir al-Balah killed at least 18 Palestinians, Hamas-run Gaza officials said Saturday, as fears increase that Israel would be expanding its ground offensive into the enclave’s last remaining areas where people have sought shelter.

Health officials in Gaza said an Israeli airstrike hit a house in Rafah, killing 14 people, including women and children.

There was no confirmation from the Israeli military that it carried out the strike.

The southern border town of Rafah is hosting more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people. They found shelter there after fleeing Israel’s nearly 4-month-old offensive against Hamas, a designated terrorist organization according to the U.S., U.K., EU and others.

Meanwhile, Hamas has begun to resurface in areas where Israel withdrew the bulk of its forces a month ago, deploying police officers and making salary payments to some of its civil servants in Gaza City in recent days, four residents and a senior official in the militant group said Saturday.

Israel says it is determined to crush Hamas and prevent it from returning to power in the enclave is has governed since 2007.

In recent days, Israeli forces renewed strikes in the western and northwestern parts of Gaza City, including in areas where some salary distributions reportedly took place.

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesperson, said Saturday that since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, Israeli forces have struck more than 50 targets in Syria linked to the Iranian-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah.

“Everywhere Hezbollah is, we shall be. We will take action everywhere required in the Middle East,” Hagari said.

Israeli forces have attacked 34,000 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, including 120 border surveillance outposts, 40 caches of missiles and other weaponry, and more than 40 command centers, Hagari said. He put the number of enemy dead at more than 200.

Hagari said Israel had deployed three army divisions along its side of the Lebanese border in anticipation of Hezbollah getting involved after October 7.

Israel has threatened to escalate the Lebanon fighting unless Hezbollah backs off from the border, and it has sought Western help in finding a diplomatic solution in Beirut.

Borrell said Saturday the Israel-Hamas war has created “a domino effect,” with conflict also erupting in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and in the Red Sea area.

Hamas leaders indicated Friday that they have received and will respond soon to a proposal for a cease-fire agreement negotiated by Egyptian, Qatari and U.S. mediators in Paris earlier this week and approved by Israel.

Agence France-Presse reports the proposal includes a three-stage plan, which would start with an initial six-week halt to the fighting and bring more aid deliveries into Gaza.

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed al-Thani made a brief visit to the United Nations Friday to meet with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, a day after meetings in Washington with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“This is part of the secretary-general’s ongoing consultations with the Qatari leadership,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters. “The prime minister was here. They, no surprise, discussed the efforts underway to end the fighting, to secure the release of the hostages, and to ensure support for humanitarian operations.”

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters Friday that the deal under negotiation is a “strong, compelling proposal,” and she urged the U.N. Security Council to increase pressure on Hamas to accept it.

If approved, the new cease-fire proposal would halt the fighting and allow the release of more hostages from Gaza and jailed Palestinians held by Israel. More than 100 hostages held by Hamas and 240 Palestinians jailed by Israel were freed in a late November weeklong cease-fire.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.