By Harun Nasrullah
London, (The Muslim News): At least 64,964 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip since October 2023, the Health Ministry reported Tuesday, as the death toll from famine climbed to 428, including 146 children. The ministry said 59 bodies were brought to hospitals in the past 24 hours, while 386 people were injured, bringing the total number of injuries to 165,312. “Many victims are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” the statement added.
Medical sources told Anadolu Agency that more than 100 Palestinians were killed in renewed Israeli attacks across Gaza on Tuesday, with 86 bodies transferred to hospitals in Gaza City alone.
Nine people were killed in central Gaza and six in the south. Nearly one million Palestinians, most displaced from other parts of the territory, remain trapped in Gaza City under “heavy, relentless” bombardment as Israel launched a new phase of its ground offensive aimed at occupying the entire city. At least 106 people have been killed by Israeli attacks and starvation since dawn, sources added.
The escalation came as the Qatari government condemned remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who described last week’s Israeli strike in Doha, which killed five Hamas members, as a “message.”
Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said, “We are used to the Israeli prime minister trying to deflect and justify his failures after every setback he suffers due to his reckless policies. We also want to send him a message: violations of international law will not go unpunished.”
Raids in the West Bank
In a separate development, Israeli forces stormed the centres of Ramallah and al-Bireh, taking positions near a UNRWA elementary boys’ school, raiding a residential building, and firing sound bombs and tear gas at homes.
Local sources reported that the troops brought with them detained Palestinian Hana Baydaq to raid her apartment. Baydaq and her husband, Bashar al-Tawil, were detained from their home on September 7; al-Tawil was released 24 hours later. Baydaq remains held in the interrogation section of Jalameh Prison and is being denied access to her lawyers, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said. Press crews were forced to leave the area and prevented from covering the incident.
Israel’s digital propaganda campaign
Spanish broadcaster RTVE, citing a Eurovision News investigation, reported that Israel has spent 167 million shekels ($50 million) on digital campaigns to shape the global narrative on Gaza and deny the famine.
The state-run ad agency Lapam, with approval from Israel’s Exemption Committee in June, signed contracts running from June 17 to December 31. Of the total, 150 million shekels ($45 million) went to YouTube and Google’s Display & Video 360 platform, 10 million shekels ($3.03 million) to X, and 7 million shekels ($2.12 million) to French and Israeli ad platforms Outbrain and Teads.
The report, titled “The new front of war: Inside Israel’s digital ‘hasbara’ offensive,” highlights how the campaigns use social media, paid influencers, and military tours to influence global opinion on Gaza.
UN: Israel committing genocide
A United Nations Commission of Inquiry concluded Tuesday that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The report highlighted the International Court of Justice’s January 2024 ruling, which found it plausible that Israel was committing genocidal acts and put “all states on notice.”
“As such, the duty to prevent genocide was triggered due to the actual or constructive knowledge of the immediate plausibility that genocide was being or was about to be committed,” the UN report said. It stressed that states are obligated to “employ all means reasonably available to them, so as to prevent genocide so far as possible,” warning that countries could be held responsible if they “manifestly failed to take all measures to prevent genocide which were within their power, and which might have contributed to preventing the genocide.”
[Photo: Relatives of Palestinians, who were killed by Israeli attacks on people waiting humanitarian aid in Tina region of Rafah, mourn as the bodies are taken from Nasser Hospital for funeral process in Khan Yunis, Gaza on September 16, 2025. Photojournalist: Abed Rahim Khatib/AA]
