Death toll in Gaza rises to 50,000, territory’s health ministry says, as Israel orders new strikes, evacuations

Palestinian officials said the war in Gaza has killed more than 50,000 people after Israel ended the ceasefire last week in a wave of strikes that killed hundreds.

Israel, which threatened Gaza with “complete destruction and devastation” if Hamas didn’t hand over the remaining hostages, has continued striking what it says are militant targets. It also launched ground incursions in northern Gaza.

Overnight into Sunday, Israeli strikes across the southern Gaza Strip killed at least 26 Palestinians, including a Hamas political leader and several women and children.

Residents said tanks had advanced into an area of the southern city of Rafah as the military ordered it evacuated.

Palestinian men, women and children could be seen walking along a dirt road and carrying their belongings in their arms, a recurring scene in a war that has forced most of Gaza’s population to flee from the territory.

“It’s displacement under fire,” said Mustafa Gaber, a local journalist who left Tel al-Sultan with his family. In a video call, he said hundreds of people were fleeing as tank and drone fire echoed nearby. “There are wounded people among us. The situation is very difficult,” he said.

The Israeli Defense Forces said the operation in Tel al-Sultan targeted “terror infrastructure sites” and sought to “eliminate terrorists in the area, in order to reinforce control and expand the security zone in southern Gaza.”

“The IDF will continue to operate against terrorist organizations in Gaza to protect Israeli civilians,” it said in a statement.

Hamas said that Salah Bardawil, a member of its political bureau and the Palestinian parliament, was killed in a strike in Muwasi that also killed his wife. 

Hospitals in southern Gaza said they received a further 24 bodies from strikes overnight, including several women and children.

Later Sunday, Gaza’s health ministry said an Israeli air strike hit a hospital in Khan Yunis, killing at least one person.

The ministry says the strike caused a large fire in the surgical building of the hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis. The hospital says there are several wounded.

Israel’s military confirmed the strike on the hospital, saying it hit a Hamas militant operating there. Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it operates in densely populated areas.

Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, an American doctor inside the hospital, told CBS News on the phone that the front of the building was on fire following an explosion. He said the hospital was at a standstill and he was worried about the possibility of another attack.

Sources told CBS News that Ismail Barhoum, a political Hamas member and spokesperson, was the target of the strike at the hospital.

The Hamas-led Gaza’s Health Ministry said a total of 50,021 Palestinians have been killed in the war and more than 113,000 have been wounded. The latest toll announced Sunday includes 673 people killed since Israel’s surprise bombardment on Tuesday as well as 233 bodies that were recently identified, the ministry said.

The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its records but has said women and children make up more than half the dead. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 fighters, without providing evidence.

Late Saturday, Israel’s Cabinet approved a proposal to set up a new directorate tasked with advancing the “voluntary departure” of Palestinians in line with President Trump’s proposal to depopulate Gaza and rebuild it for others.

Palestinians say they do not want to leave their homeland, and rights groups have said the plan could amount to expulsion in violation of international law.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the new body would be “subject to Israeli and international law” and coordinate “passage by land, sea and air to the destination countries.”

The ceasefire that took hold in January paused 15 months of heavy fighting ignited by Hamas’ terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed some 1,200 people. Hamas-led militants took 251 people hostage.

Most of the captives have been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals, while Israeli forces rescued eight alive and recovered dozens of bodies.

The sides were supposed to begin negotiations in early February on the next phase of the truce, in which Hamas was to release the remaining 59 hostages — 35 of whom are believed to be dead — in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.

Those talks never began, and Israel backed out of the ceasefire agreement after Hamas refused Israeli and U.S.-backed proposals to release more hostages ahead of any talks on a lasting truce.