More than 40,000 killed in Gaza, Hamas-run health ministry says | BBC News

More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed as a result of Israeli military action in Gaza since the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel, the Hamas-run health ministry has said.

That number – 40,005 on Thursday – equates to about 1.7% of the 2.3 million population of the territory – another indication of the human cost of the war.

The health ministry’s figures for the number of people killed do not differentiate between civilians and fighters – its breakdown of identified reported fatalities said a majority are children, women or elderly people.

This month, Israel’s military told the BBC that more than 15,000 “terrorists” had been killed during the war.

International journalists, including the BBC, aren’t able to report from Gaza to independently verify figures from either side.

The war began when thousands of Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel on 7 October, killing about 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

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