Gaza death toll surpasses 69,000 amid body exchanges under fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire, said officials

More than 69,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war so far, Gaza health officials said Saturday, as both sides completed the latest exchange of bodies under the terms of the tenuous ceasefire.

The latest jump in deaths occurred as more bodies are recovered in the devastated Gaza Strip since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10, and as other bodies are identified. The toll also includes Palestinians killed by strikes that Israel says target remaining militants.

Israel on Saturday returned the remains of another 15 Palestinians to Gaza, according to hospital officials there, a day after militants returned the remains of a hostage to Israel. He was identified as Lior Rudaeff, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ’s office. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said that Rudaeff was born in Argentina.

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The exchanges are the central part of the ceasefire’s initial phase, which requires that Hamas return all hostage remains as quickly as possible. Families and supporters rallied again Saturday night in Tel Aviv for the return of all.

The truce is aimed at winding down the deadliest and most destructive war ever between Israel and the Palestinian militant group. It began with the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.

Also Saturday, Israeli settlers staged two attacks on Palestinian farmers and others in the occupied West Bank as settler violence reaches new highs during this year’s olive harvest.

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‘I have not lost hope’
For each Israeli hostage returned, Israel has been releasing the remains of 15 Palestinians. Ahmed Dheir, director of forensic medicine at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, said that the remains of 300 have now been returned, with 89 identified.

“We do not have sufficient resources or the DNA to match them with the martyrs’ families,” Dheir said. Unidentified ones will be buried in batches.

Hopeful families looked into body bags of decomposed remains. “Close it, it’s not him," one family said.

“I always come here. I have not lost hope. I am still waiting for him,” said the mother of a missing boy, who did not give her name.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said the number of people killed there since the war began has risen to 69,169. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by independent experts.

The ministry said 284 people were added to the total after their identities were verified between Oct. 31 and Nov. 7.

Over the past three days, 10 bodies were brought to Gaza hospitals — nine retrieved from the rubble and one newly killed, the ministry said. Since the ceasefire began, 241 people have been killed in Gaza, it said.

It added that a large number of Palestinians remain missing.

Israel’s military on Saturday said that soldiers killed two militants who had approached troops, one in northern Gaza and the other in the south.

Israeli settler attack
Palestinian health officials said 11 people were injured in an attack by Israeli settlers in the West Bank town of Beita, including journalists, medics, international activists and farmers. Activists and medics have flocked to this year’s olive harvest to help Palestinian farmers safely reach their fields.

The U.N. humanitarian office reported more Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians and their property in the West Bank in October than in any other month since the office began keeping track in 2006. There were over 260 attacks, the office said.

Jonathan Pollak, a longtime activist, told The Associated Press that he was picking olives when dozens of masked Israeli settlers, armed with clubs, descended, chasing people and throwing rocks. Pollak was hit in the head and taken to the hospital.

Pollak said that he saw five settlers converge on a journalist and her security guard. He watched the settlers beat and bludgeon her, denting her helmet.

A Reuters spokesperson said that two colleagues were “attacked by a group of men with sticks and rocks,” despite identifying themselves as journalists, and both were injured. The spokesperson called on Israeli authorities to investigate and hold those responsible accountable.

Israel’s military said it dispersed a confrontation “between Israeli civilians and Palestinians during an uncoordinated olive harvest in an area that requires prior coordination” and that several Palestinians had been injured.

Rights groups say that arrests for settler violence are rare, and prosecutions even rarer. Israel’s left-leaning Haaretz newspaper reported in 2022 that based on statistics from the Israeli police, charges were pressed in only 3.8% of cases of settler violence, with most cases closed without action taken.

Also Saturday, Palestinian paramedics reported another settler attack in a nearby village, Burin. The Palestinian Red Crescent said settlers injured four international activists and one 57-year-old man.

Israel’s military said soldiers responded to a report of rock-throwing at an Israeli vehicle and that Israeli civilians then hurled rocks at harvesters. It said Israeli and Palestinian civilians were injured.

(Except the headline, this story has not been edited by Firstpost staff.)