The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Thursday that the Israeli army has “adopted for the first time the Gaza Health Ministry’s estimate that approximately 70,000 Palestinians were killed during the war.”
The newspaper quoted Israeli security sources as saying that “the Gaza agreement is confusing and leaves unresolved issues, including the disarmament of Hamas and the extent of Israel’s withdrawal from the Strip.” The sources added, “If there is no fundamental change regarding disarmament, Israel will be forced to re-enter the Gaza Strip.”
Haaretz also quoted Israeli officials as saying that accelerating reconstruction in Gaza without disarmament would pose a new threat to Israel.
With American support, Israel launched a two-year war of genocide in Gaza in October 2013, leaving more than 71,000 dead and over 171,000 wounded, most of them children and women.
The occupying army also destroyed 90% of the civilian infrastructure, with the United Nations estimating the cost at about $7 billion to rebuild the Gaza Strip, where nearly 2.4 million Palestinians, including 1.5 million displaced people, live in catastrophic conditions.
