The Hamas-run Gazan health ministry said on Monday (February 19) that over 29,000 Palestinians have been killed inside the strip ever since Hamas's October 7 attack in southern Israel.
However, this would not deter the Israeli government, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was adamant about achieving what he claimed as "total victory" against the terror group governing Gaza since its withdrawal from the territory in 2005, even if it meant pushing through the southernmost town of Rafah on the Egyptian border.
The ministry said that 107 bodies were brought to hospitals in the last 24 hours, but it does not distinguish between civilian and combatant casualties.
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Gantz to Hamas: Free Israeli Hostages Before Ramadan, Or Else...
Over the weekend, Israeli War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz warned that the offensive would expand to Rafah if the hostages were not freed by the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which was expected to begin by around March 10.
Ramadan, iconic for its strict dawn-to-dusk fasting, has often been a time of heightened tensions in the region as it almost encompasses the Jewish Passover and the Christian Passiontide or Holy Week, the Associated Press reported.
Israel claimed that it was developing plans to evacuate civilians from Rafah. Still, it was not clear where they would go as they had been hemmed in by Israeli troops in the north and the tightly guarded Rafah border crossing into Egypt in the south.
Plans for another truce, brokered by Egypt, Qatar, and the US, appeared to have stalled in recent days, contrary to earlier reports of it progressing.
To make matters worse, Egyptian officials have warned Israel that an influx of Palestinians into their territory could threaten its peace treaty with Israel.
