JERUSALEM (AFP) – The bloodiest ever war in Gaza that broke out exactly six months ago has taken an appalling human toll.
At least 33,175 people have been killed in the besieged Palestinian territory, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
While Hamas has refused to say how many fighters it has lost, Israel claims to have killed more than 12,000.
Like many of the casualty figures from the war, this is impossible to confirm independently.
The Israeli army said yesterday that it has lost some 600 troops since the war began, 260 of them killed in Gaza itself since it went in on the ground on October 27.
Most of the 33,175 people who have been killed in Gaza in Israel’s campaign have been women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.
The Israeli military claims to have “eliminated” 12,000 enemy fighters there, including five brigade commanders and 20 battalion commanders.
At least another 459 Palestinians have been killed in violence in the occupied West Bank, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Israel says it has struck 32,000 targets in Gaza from the air since the war began.
Israeli fire since October has killed at least 359 people in Lebanon, mostly Hezbollah fighters, while at least 70 civilians have also died, according to an AFP tally.
The cross-border fire has displaced tens of thousands of people in southern Lebanon.
Fighters from other groups in Lebanon including Hamas and the Hezbollah-allied Amal movement are also included in the total.
At least 23 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in Israeli strikes in Syria, according to an AFP tally, with seven Iranian Revolutionary Guards killed in a strike on Damascus last week.
Israel says it has struck 1,400 targets from air in Lebanon and 3,300 with artillery, rockets and tanks.
Its military said 3,100 rockets have been fired over the border from Lebanon and 35 from Syria.
