Gaza Health Ministry says Palestinian death toll from Israel-Hamas war has surpassed 64,000

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DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes killed at least 28 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children, overnight and into Thursday, local health officials said. Hamas and Israel reiterated their incompatible demands for ending the nearly two-year war sparked by the militant group’s Oct. 7 attack.

The Gaza Health Ministry meanwhile said the overall Palestinian death toll has climbed past 64,000, including around 400 people who were listed as missing but who it said had been confirmed dead.

Hamas released a statement late Wednesday saying it was open to returning all 48 hostages it still holds — around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive — in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all of Gaza, the opening of border crossings and a start to the daunting challenge of rebuilding Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office dismissed the offer as “spin” and said the war would continue until all the hostages are returned, Hamas is disarmed and Israel has full security control of the territory, with civilian administration delegated to others.

Talks on a temporary ceasefire that would have seen some of the hostages returned broke down last month when U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff walked away, blaming Hamas. The militant group later accepted a proposal that Hamas and Arab mediators said was almost identical to an earlier one accepted by Israel, but there’s been no public indication that talks have resumed.

The latest strikes came as Israeli troops were operating on the outskirts of famine-stricken Gaza City in the initial stages of a planned offensive to take over the most populous Palestinian city, home to around a million people, many of whom have already been displaced multiple times.

Shifa Hospital in Gaza City received 25 bodies, including nine children and six women, after Israeli strikes hit tents housing displaced people, according to hospital records. Among those killed was a 10 day-old baby. Another three people were killed in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militants are entrenched in densely-populated areas.

Gaza’s Health Ministry does not say how many of those killed were militants or civilians. It says women and children make up around half the dead.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. Its figures are seen as a reliable estimate of wartime deaths by U.N. agencies and many independent experts. Israel has disputed them without providing its own toll.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in the Oct. 7 attack and abducted 251 people. Most have since been released in ceasefires or other agreements.

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Chehayeb reported from Beirut.

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