Day 209: 34,596 killed, 77,816 injured in Gaza

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Al Mayadeen
2 May 2024 14:22

The Palestinian Health Ministry says thousands of victims of the Israeli war on Gaza remain trapped under the rubble and on roads inaccessible to ambulance and civil defense.

A wounded Palestinian old man sits outside a building destroyed in an Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on April 29, 2024. (AFP)

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced on Wednesday that the number of Palestinians killed in the ongoing Israeli genocide in the Strip since October 7 has now reached 34,596, with 77,816 injured as the war marks its 209th day.

Additionally, the Ministry stated that the Israeli occupation committed in the past 24 hours three massacres against families in the Strip, killing 28 people and injuring 51.

It noted that thousands of victims of the aggression remain trapped under the rubble and on roads inaccessible to ambulance and civil defense crews, as the occupation continues to prevent rescue teams from reaching them.

Nowhere to go

With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring that the occupation army will invade Rafah whether an exchange deal with the Palestinian Resistance is reached or not, top world officials and human rights organizations voiced their deep concerns over the ongoing genocide in Gaza that would get even much worse if the small city sheltering over 1.3 million people, most of whom were forcibly displaced, is attacked.

UNICEF's global spokesperson James Elder has reported on the many horrors he witnessed in Rafah, warning that a potential invasion would be "catastrophic".

During three visits to the European Hospital's ICU in the city bordering Egypt earlier this week, Elder recalled how he observed many youngsters lying on the same bed after a bomb tore their house. Despite the physicians' best attempts, they all died.

He stated how mere weeks earlier, the world was outraged at the killing of seven World Central Kitchen humanitarian aid workers and a week later, a UNICEF van was attacked, as it attempted to deliver much-needed aid.

Elder emphasizes that Rafah would completely implode if attacked. "There is simply nowhere left to go in Gaza," he says, citing the severe shortage of water for drinking and sanitation and the one shared toilet per 850 people.