The Palestinian death toll this year is the largest Palestine has witnessed since the 1948 Nakba.

The Central Bureau of Statistics disclosed that at the end of 2023 the number of people killed in the occupied territories stands at 22,404, including 22,141 since October 7.

At least 98 percent were in the Gaza Strip, including about 9,000 children and 6,450 women.

The number of people killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7 reached 319, including 111 children and four women.

More than 100 journalists were also killed, according to the Health Ministry, while the number of missing persons in Gaza is more than 7,000 people, 67 percent women and children.

Highlighting the deplorable situation in the enclave, Gemma Connell, an official with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) who has been working in Gaza, said that tens of thousands of people fleeing to Rafah during Israeli attacks often arrive with no possessions or anywhere to sleep.

“I just am so fearful that the amount of deaths that we’ve been seeing is going to increase exponentially both because of this renewed offensive, but also because of these conditions which are literally unbelievable,” she said.

The UN agency said earlier that over the past few days, an estimated 100,000 people arrived in Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost town on the border with Egypt, after intense new Israeli ground and aerial attacks around the central town of Deir el-Balah and the southern city of Khan Younis.

In other developments, Naim Qassem, a top Hezbollah leader stated that fighting at Israel’s northern border will continue until it halts the war on Gaza.

Naim Qassem said that Israel is putting forward proposals and “trying to show it has options” to help return displaced Israeli residents and push Hezbollah from the border area.

“Israel is not in a position to impose its options,” Qassem said in a speech, warning Israel “first must stop the Gaza war in order for the war in Lebanon to stop”.

“The persistent bombing of civilians in Lebanon means the response will be stronger and proportionate to the Israeli aggression,” Qassem added.

Israeli Minister Reiterates Calls For Palestinians To Leave Gaza

As on Sunday, Israel’s Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich called for Palestinian residents of Gaza to leave the besieged enclave, making way for the Israelis who could “make the desert bloom.”

Smotrich, who has been excluded from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet and discussions of day-after arrangements in Gaza, made the comments while speaking to Israeli Army Radio.

“What needs to be done in the Gaza Strip is to encourage emigration,” he said.

“If there are 100,000 or 200,000 Arabs in Gaza and not two million Arabs, the entire discussion on the day after will be totally different,” he said.

He added that if the 2.3 million population were no longer there “growing up on the aspiration to destroy the state of Israel”, Gaza would be seen differently in Israel.

He remarked, “Most of Israeli society will say: ‘Why not? It’s a nice place, let’s make the desert bloom, it doesn’t come at anyone’s expense’.”

In response, Hamas said that Smotrich’s call to displace two million Palestinians and keep about 200,000 in Gaza is “a war crime accompanied by criminal aggression.”

In a statement, Hamas added that the international community and the United Nations must take action to stop Israel’s crimes and hold it accountable for what it has done to the Palestinian people.