GAZA: The health ministry in Gaza said on Monday that at least 45,028 people have been killed during more than 14 months of the Zionist entity’s military offensive. The toll includes 52 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 106,962 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began on Oct 7, 2023

In Khan Younis, relatives of Palestinians killed by the Zionist entity gathered around their white-shrouded bodies on Monday before carrying them to their graves. Palestinian health officials said on Sunday at least 20 people, including children, were killed in the strike at the school sheltering displaced families in the city in the southern Gaza Strip.

Women wept as the bodies of the family members were carried away on medical stretchers by men who laid them on the ground to perform funeral prayers. “People were safe, staying in their homes (shelters) after they prayed the dinner prayer. They were sitting, sleeping, and staying put in their places,” said Manal Tafesh, whose brother and his children were among those killed. “Our children are gone, our children are gone. Our youth are gone. Our children are gone, and our lineage ended. When will this darkness end?” she told Reuters outside the morgue.

Zionist bombardment continued on Monday. Medics said four people were killed in an airstrike in Beit Lahiya town in the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, where the army has operated since October, while three were killed in Zionist tank shelling that hit near the cemetery of Nuseirat camp in central areas and three others in Rafah in the south.

Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had spoken with US President-elect Donald Trump, who returns to the White House on Jan 20, about efforts to secure a release of captives. “We discussed the need to complete (the Zionist entity’s) victory and we spoke at length about the efforts we are making to free our hostages,” Netanyahu said in a statement on Sunday. — Agencies