On day 317 of the genocide in Gaza, the total number of Palestinians killed since the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip started on October 7 has risen to 40,099, in addition to 92,609 injuries, according to the daily report published by the Health Ministry in Gaza on Saturday.

"Israel" committed two massacres in 24 hours, killing 25 Palestinians and injuring 72 others, the ministry added.

While some were transported to partially functioning hospitals, many Palesitians remain trapped beneath the rubble with rescue crews unable to reach them.

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Dr. Marwan al-Hams, director of field hospitals at the Palestinian Ministry of Health, told The Guardian, earlier this year “This figure, 40,000, includes only those bodies that have been recovered and buried.”

“New procedures are being developed to include those who are missing or trapped beneath the rubble in the official death toll, but these have not yet been implemented,” he stressed.

Dr. Hams estimates that approximately 10,000 people remain trapped beneath buildings leveled by the Israeli occupation army, due to a critical shortage of heavy machinery and fuel necessary to clear the steel and concrete debris in search of them.

In the past 10 months, the Israeli aggression has led to mass displacement into overcrowded shelters and makeshift tents, hunger due to dwindling aid shipments, and dire shortages of clean water and sanitation, which have led to the spread of diseases.

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Hospitals have been bombed and besieged, with their supplies of medicines, equipment, and fuel cut off, medical staff detained or killed, and wards overflowing with patients.

“People who have died as a result of the indirect impacts of the war, such as disease, starvation, and the collapse of the healthcare system, are not included in the war death toll,” Dr. Hams said as quoted by The Guardian. “A committee will be formed to count these victims, and it will begin its work immediately after the war ends,” he added.

Following previous Israeli aggressions on Gaza between 2009 and 2021, United Nations investigators compiled their lists of Palestinian martyrs, which closely matched those from Gaza's Health Ministry.

“Regrettably, we have considerable experience coordinating casualty figures with the Ministry of Health every few years,” said Farhan Haq, a spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General. “Their numbers have consistently been proven to be generally accurate.”

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