Gaza Death Toll Exceeds 10K as IDF Says Territory Essentially Split in Two

Facts

• In 31 days of unrelenting Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip — in combination with a blockade on food, water, fuel, and medicine — the territory's health ministry said on Monday that upwards of 10K Palestinians have now been killed since Oct. 7. Thousands more are believed to be trapped under the rubble.¹
• Air strikes on Gaza in the last 24 hours were reportedly the most intense they'd been in any day since the bombardment campaign started, according to reporting from the Guardian. This comes as Israeli forces continued to use the cover of strikes for a ground operation in the territory.²
• Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), said on Monday that Israeli forces had surrounded Gaza City in the north, essentially splitting the territory in two. 'Today there is north Gaza and south Gaza,' he said. The comments come as Israeli media reported that a forceful entry into Gaza City was expected within the next 48 hours.²
• Meanwhile, dozens of rallies calling on Israel to halt its bombardment of Gaza continued to be held in major cities across the world over the weekend. Among them were Washington D.C., London, and Paris, as well as Berlin and Rome.³
• In a rare move, the heads of 18 UN agencies and non-governmental organizations — including UNICEF, Save the Children, and the World Food Program — also called for an immediate cease-fire in the war. The letter described the killings of both Israelis and Palestinians over the past month as 'horrific' and expressed 'shock and horror' at the mounting death toll.⁴
• It comes as the conflict officially became the deadliest ever for UN workers, with 88 so far killed in Gaza. Separately, at least 150 health workers have also been killed. More than 100 health facilities have also reportedly been damaged.⁵

Sources: ¹Al Jazeera (a), ²The Guardian (a), ³Associated Press, ⁴Al Jazeera (b) and ⁵The Guardian (b).

Narratives

• Pro-Israel narrative, as provided by The Times of Israel. While the images depicting the destruction in Gaza, alongside the high number of casualties, as a result of Israeli air strikes may be distressing, they need to be put in the context of other wars. Wars are inevitably destructive, and this one was started by Hamas and Israel was forced to respond to a catastrophic terror attack.
• Pro-Palestine narrative, as provided by Alarabiya News. While Hamas' attack on Israel cannot be condoned, that does not justify Israel's response in which it has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians — the vast majority of which have no affiliation to Hamas. This is collective punishment on the Palestinians and it needs to be called out.

Predictions