The Gaza Health Ministry said hospitals in the enclave had received seven bodies over the past 48 hours including four new fatalities two who died of earlier wounds and one recovered from rubble along with 20 injured people. The ministry added 181 names to the cumulative toll after a committee verified their records marking the first such update since September 26. Its statement indicated that thousands more Palestinians are believed to remain under debris from destroyed buildings where recovery teams cannot reach them.
According to the ministry the total number of deaths since a ceasefire took effect on October 11, 2025 stands at 1,445 with 5,072 injured during the same period while teams have recovered the bodies of 835 people. The ceasefire has been frequently violated by both sides according to statements from Palestinian and Israeli authorities leading to continued low-level violence. The ministry has consistently maintained detailed daily records of casualties throughout the conflict.
United Nations agencies and independent experts have long regarded the Gaza Health Ministry’s casualty counts as generally reliable even as Israeli officials have questioned the methodology at times according to multiple reports from Reuters. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its totals but earlier assessments found that women and children accounted for more than half of those killed. A study published in The Lancet Global Health in February 2026 estimated that actual deaths in the first 15 months exceeded official counts when including indirect causes.
The conflict erupted when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023 killing approximately 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages according to Israeli government figures. Israel’s subsequent military operations have reduced large parts of Gaza to rubble displacing most of the enclave’s population and destroying much of its infrastructure. Reconstruction costs have been estimated in the tens of billions of dollars by international assessments.
Since the ceasefire took hold nearly a year ago Israeli strikes and other incidents have continued to produce casualties even as diplomatic efforts to solidify the truce remain stalled according to reporting by the Associated Press. The Gaza Health Ministry has used hospital admissions morgue records and family attestations to compile its statistics updating them periodically as verification committees complete their work. Officials noted that the latest additions reflect both new incidents and retroactive approvals of earlier uncounted deaths.
Health facilities across Gaza continue to operate under severe constraints with limited supplies and damaged infrastructure complicating efforts to treat the wounded and document fatalities the ministry statement indicated. International humanitarian organizations have repeatedly called for unimpeded access to affected areas to assist with recovery and medical care. The overall injured tally since the war began now stands at 175,188 according to the latest ministry compilation.
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