Gaza health ministry reports 93 deaths since truce start

Tel Aviv [Israel], October 25 : Gaza's Health Ministry has said that at least 93 Palestinians have been killed and 324 others have been injured in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire began on October 11.

According to officials, 19 people were killed and seven more wounded in Israeli strikes over the last 48 hours alone.

The ministry said that since October 7, 2023, when the conflict began, a total of 68,519 Palestinians have been killed and more than 170,000 injured in Gaza.

The United Nations has warned that 1.5 million people in the Gaza Strip are in need of urgent humanitarian aid, Al Jazeera reported. Many Palestinians returning to their homes have found widespread destruction, with little access to food, clean water, or shelter.

In a separate incident, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian teenager in the occupied West Bank, according to Wafa news agency.

The victim, 18-year-old Mohammed Ahmed Abu Haneen, died of bullet wounds during an Israeli raid in Askar camp in Nablus, Al Jazeera reported.

Israeli troops also carried out arrests in Hebron and Tal, bringing the total number of Palestinians detained in the West Bank to 44 over the past week, according to the Israeli military.

On Saturday, meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio who is on visit to Israel met with the families of hostages killed by Hamas. He wrote, "We will not forget the lives of the hostages who died in Hamas captivity. Today, I met with the families of American citizens Itay Chen and Omer Neutra. We will not rest until their and all remains are returned."

Calling the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) a "subsidiary of Hamas", US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday categorically said that "Hamas cannot be involved in governing the future of Gaza."

The top US official said this while addressing a press conference at the US Civil-Military Coordination Centre in Israel's Kiryat Gat.

"Here's a lot of work to be done here and there's going to be some impediments along the way and things of this nature that people put out there. Suffice it to say that everyone that signed onto this plan, all of these other countries agreed and everyone agreed that Hamas cannot govern and cannot be involved in governing the future of Gaza.Everyone's agreed to that. That has to be part of this," Rubio stated.

He said that the immediate focus remains on sustaining the ceasefire and ensuring humanitarian aid reaches those in need.

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