Palestinian death toll in Gaza rises to 30,320: ministry

GAZA, March 2 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to 30,320, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said in a press statement on Saturday.

During the past 24 hours, the Israeli army killed 92 Palestinians and wounded 156 others, bringing the total death toll to 30,320 and injuries to 71,533 since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the statement.

Among them, 15 died in Al-Aqsa Hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah due to an Israeli airstrike targeting two houses, and two others were killed in an airstrike targeting a house in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.

Ten people were killed in Israeli air raids on neighborhoods of Al-Zaytoun, Tal Al-Hawa, Al-Sabra and Al-Daraj in Gaza City, added the sources.

Meanwhile, in the northern Gazan town of Beit Hanoun, a group of people picking herbs to satisfy hunger were targetted in an Israeli artillery shelling, with three of them killed and seven others injured, according to eyewitnesses.

In Rafah, in the far south, an Israeli drone bombed a civilian vehicle in the Al-Shaboura neighborhood in the center of the city, killing two people and wounding a third. They were transferred to the Kuwaiti Hospital.

Israel has been launching a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage.