Jerusalem, May 12 (EFE).- The Gaza death toll since the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas group began in October last year surpassed 35,000 on Sunday, according to the health ministry in the war-ravaged coastal strip.
The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry said 63 people were killed in the enclave over the past day, bringing the total number of deaths in the last more than seven months of war to 35,034.
At least 114 were injured, bringing the total number of injured since the offensive began to 78,755.
The casualty figure soars as the Israeli Army escalated its attacks in Rafah, on the southern end of the strip, which hosts nearly 1.5 million Palestinians, internally displaced by the war.
It is estimated that approximately 300,000 people have fled the area due to the constant threat of Israeli bombings.
On Saturday, Israel ordered the civilian population to evacuate from the camps of Rafah and Shabura and the neighborhoods of Adari and Geneina, advancing towards the city center, which houses 1.4 million displaced Palestinians.
The fresh evacuation order came six days after the Israeli military asked around 100,000 residents to leave the outskirts of eastern Rafah before troops rolled into the region that borders Egypt.
The armed forces have resumed combat in the Jabalia refugee camp in the north, where they say the Islamist group is regrouping.
The camp was one of the first places the troops entered in October, and since then, hundreds of people have died in airstrikes in the area, and much of its infrastructure has been devastated.
In a statement on Saturday, Hamas accused Israel of committing «genocide, war of starvation, and ethnic cleansing,” denouncing the closure of the Rafah border crossing for the fifth consecutive day.
The latest Gaza health ministry data, based on information from hospitals and clinics in the enclave, indicates that about 10,000 people are missing in Gaza.
On the other hand, 72 percent of the fatalities are women and children.
Some 17,000 children have lost one or both parents, while at least 30 people have died from starvation, according to official data. EFE
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