On Friday in the Gaza city of Khan Younis, people collect the bodies of Palestinians killed in airstrikes.
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On Friday in the Gaza city of Khan Younis, people collect the bodies of Palestinians killed in airstrikes.
Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images
TEL AVIV, Israel — Palestinian officials have released a list of more than 6,700 names of what they describe as Palestinians killed in Gaza since the outbreak of war with Israel earlier this month.
Israel has pummeled Gaza ever since Hamas, the militant group that governs the territory, unleashed a day of violence on Israeli communities near its border on Oct. 7, attacking soldiers and civilians in a rampage that Israel says left 1,400 people dead. Nearly 230 hostages continue to be held by Hamas.
The list of names and corresponding identification numbers from Gaza’s Ministry of Health came late Thursday in response to comments from President Biden casting doubt on the Palestinian death toll. In total, officials in Gaza say that 7,028 have been killed so far, but several hundred have not yet been identified.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby later said the White House did not dispute reports that thousands of Palestinians had been killed.
“We absolutely know that the death toll continues to rise in Gaza,” Kirby said in a briefing. “But what we’re saying is, you shouldn’t rely on numbers put forth by Hamas.”
The list of the dead could not be independently verified. With Gaza’s borders closed, it is impossible for foreign journalists to verify information. The health ministry is run in coordination with the internationally-backed Palestinian Authority, and its numbers are produced in connection with hospitals in Gaza. The ministry’s numbers are seen as credible by humanitarian organizations and are widely cited, including by the U.S. State Department.
Over the past week, Israel has sent troops into Gaza for raids on what they describe as Hamas military infrastructure. The ground troops were accompanied by airstrikes and artillery shelling, officials said, and several of the raids have included tanks.
On Thursday, Israel announced it had killed Shadi Barud, a top Hamas intelligence official who Israel described as one of the two architects behind the Oct. 7 assault, alongside Yahya Sinwar, the Palestinian leader of Hamas in Gaza.
An overview of a destroyed building following Israeli bombardment of Khan Younis overnight into Friday.
Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images
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An overview of a destroyed building following Israeli bombardment of Khan Younis overnight into Friday.
Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images
Overall, Israel has increased the intensity of its attacks on Gaza, some days conducting hundreds of airstrikes on the 25-mile-long territory.
The increased pace of strikes has terrified Palestinians living in Gaza.
“Last night was just horrible. Every second and every minute there was continuous bombing,” said Shaimaa Ahed on Thursday. The 20-year-old engineering student has been documenting her experience during the conflict for the Institute for Middle East Understanding, a U.S.-based non-profit that seeks to give voice to Palestinians.
The home where Ahed is staying is so full of dirt and gunpowder, she said, that everyone inside takes turns wearing a mask with a wet cloth held over it, hoping to avoid breathing in unhealthy air.
As she spoke, multiple explosions could be heard striking nearby.
“To be honest, I’m not OK. I’m alive, yes, but I’m physically and mentally drained, and so are all the people of the Gaza strip,” she said. “If it wasn’t for our faith and religion, we would have completely broken down.”
Israeli officials say they have warned Israelis who have evacuated from areas near the fighting that they could be away from their homes for months.
“This is a long haul. This is not just another round with Gaza. This is something much bigger,” Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, a military spokesperson, told NPR Thursday.
A quarter million Israelis have been displaced from their homes in Israel’s north and south, officials say, about half of them voluntarily and half of them under government supervision.
Under evacuation orders are towns near the border of the Gaza Strip, an area known as the Gaza Envelope, and towns along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where violence with Hezbollah has increased over the last few weeks.
Greg Myre contributed reporting in Tel Aviv.
