The government media office in Gaza said on Saturday that the Israeli aggression on Gaza had killed 30,960 people and injured 72,524 others since 7 October, including 72% of children and women. It also said that 110,000 people were either missing or displaced, and 90% of the population had to flee their homes.
The office estimated that the direct damages and losses caused by the Israeli bombing had exceeded $30bn, affecting housing, facilities, and infrastructure, such as roads, electricity, water, and sewage networks.
Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), called for effective action at various political, diplomatic, and legal levels to stop the war on Gaza and protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
In a message to the leaders and scholars of the Arab and Islamic nations, Haniyeh emphasized the need to pressure the international capitals that support the occupation to force it to end this brutal war immediately and unconditionally.
Haniyeh said in his message before the start of Ramadan: “We stress the need to quickly provide real relief to our people in terms of food, medicine, and shelter, and to open the crossings to fully operate, in a way that meets the full and urgent needs, ends the siege completely, and starts a comprehensive reconstruction process.”
“We assure you, and all free people, that our people are more attached to their land and more confident in the option of resistance, as a legitimate way to end the occupation, and to continue to confront all plans that aim to liquidate the Palestinian cause,” he added.
Meanwhile, Philippe Lazzarini, the Director-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), warned that the UN agency was “threatened with death” after several donors stopped funding it. He said that the agency was at risk of being dismantled.
He added: “What is at stake is the fate of the Palestinians in Gaza today in the short term, who are facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.”
Also on Saturday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi said that the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip would cost $90 billion. He said that he had “requested an estimate (from Egyptian state institutions) for the cost of rebuilding the Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli bombing it witnessed.”
Al-Sisi added: “The Rafah crossing is open 24 hours a day, and we are keen to bring aid into the Gaza Strip.”
In the same context, the Jordanian army said on Saturday that it had carried out 10 airdrops of aid to sites in the northern Gaza Strip, in partnership with “brotherly and friendly countries.”
According to the army’s official website, two Royal Jordanian Air Force C-130 aircraft, an Egyptian aircraft, four US aircraft, two French aircraft, and a Belgian aircraft participated in the operation.
The website said that the number of airdrops carried out by Jordan since November 6 had reached 35, while 10 countries had participated in implementing 36 airdrops in cooperation with the Jordanian army.
The website also said that humanitarian and medical aid continued to be sent through land convoys or via an air bridge from Marka Airport to Al-Arish International Airport or through airdrops into the Gaza Strip. On Friday, Jordan denied responsibility for the deaths of Palestinians as a result of the wrong landing of aid in Gaza.
On the ground, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, announced the names of 4 prisoners out of 7 whose deaths it announced more than a week ago, as a result of the Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip.
The Brigades said in a statement on Telegram: “We previously announced the killing of 7 Zionist prisoners as a result of the barbaric Zionist raids on the Gaza Strip, and we revealed the names of three of them, and after examining and verifying the identity of the remaining four dead, it was confirmed to us that the four prisoners were killed.”
