Death toll in Gaza hits 1,200 with over 338,000 people displaced

The death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to 1,200 people, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Thursday, following an increase in Israeli bombardments on the sixth day since Hamas’s surprise attack.

“The number of martyrs has risen to around 1,200, and the number of wounded to around 5,600,” a spokesperson for the health ministry in Gaza said.

More than 338,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations said, as heavy Israeli bombardments continue to hit the Palestinian enclave.

“Mass displacement across the Gaza Strip continues,” the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in a statement sent on Thursday.

By late Wednesday, the number of displaced people in Gaza had risen by an additional 75,000 people from the figure given 24 hours earlier, reaching 338,934, it said.

The announcement came as Israel pounded Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip – a densely populated enclave of 2.3 million people – in response to the militants’ surprise Saturday attack.

Biden warns Iran not to get involved in conflict

US President Joe Biden warned Iran against getting involved in Israel’s conflict with Hamas amid fears of a wider regional conflict, while Israeli air strikes around the Gaza Strip drove hundreds of thousands from their homes.

Israeli jets have pounded Gazan targets for days in retribution for a weekend attack by Hamas militants who breached the border fence enclosing the enclave and rampaged through towns and villages, killing 1,200 people, injuring over 2,700, and taking scores of hostages, the Israeli military said.

Brazil, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, called a Friday meeting of the body to discuss the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, its foreign affairs ministry said Wednesday.

Brazilian Foreign Affairs Minister Mauro Vieira has interrupted an Asia trip to travel “to New York to participate in a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, called by Brazil … to address the situation in the Gaza Strip”, the ministry said in a statement.

Brazil previously called an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Sunday, the day after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel.