Gaza officials have added thousands of names to the death toll from Israel’s genocide, bringing the total to over 60,000 Palestinians as rescuers scour the Gaza Strip for bodies amid the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.
On Monday, Gaza Government Information Office head Salama Maarouf said that there are at least 14,222 people believed to be trapped under the rubble, on the roads or in areas inaccessible to rescuers. According to Maarouf, only 76 percent of those killed in the genocide have been brought to medical centers, which is the primary way that officials were counting deaths.
This brings the official death toll to 61,709, including 17,881 children, with at least 111,588 wounded. The toll has already risen by hundreds since the ceasefire went into effect as rescuers have recovered bodies from the rubble.
The body of renowned Palestinian writer and activist Refaat Alareer was recovered and relocated by Palestinian officials. Gaza Municipality spokesperson Asem Alnabih said on X that officials had recovered Alareer’s body on Tuesday, and moved him and several of his relatives from a makeshift grave in Gaza City to a cemetery near Al-Shujaiya, his birthplace and home.
“Dear friends of Refaat Alareer around the world, I want to share with you that after a long and painful search we have finally found Dr. Refaat Alareer’s body,” Alnabih said. “Please keep him in your prayers, and may his family and friends find strength and peace.”
Israeli forces killed Alareer on December 6, in an airstrike, after he had received threats for weeks. Limited inquiries into the strike found that Israeli forces likely targeted Alareer for assassination.
The government’s update of the death toll brings the official death tally closer to estimates of the toll by researchers and experts. In a study in The Lancet published last month, researchers said that the death toll was underreported by 40 percent as of June, with likely at least 64,000 deaths from traumatic injury at the time. With the same rate of underreporting, that would bring the true toll to over 70,000, researchers said.
The toll could be many times higher when deaths caused by Israel’s humanitarian blockade are included. Humanitarian groups have long warned that deaths to starvation and disease could far exceed killings from bombings and other attacks; last July, public health experts said that the death toll could be 186,000 or more, judging by previous estimates of “indirect” deaths in similar conflicts.
Maarouf also said that over 2 million Palestinians were forcibly displaced by the genocide, “some more than 25 times.”
Negotiations for the second phase of the ceasefire, set to begin in March, have begun, according to Hamas officials. Under a preliminary framework for the second phase, remaining Israeli captives held in Gaza are slated to be released, while Israel is supposed to release more Palestinian prisoners. It is also supposed to bring the region closer to a permanent end to the fighting.
However, the deal may still fall apart, especially if Israel continues its pattern of sabotaging ceasefire talks and they insist on continuing their slaughter in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that U.S. officials under Joe Biden and Donald Trump have reportedly given him assurances that Israel can resume the slaughter if negotiations on the second phase aren’t fruitful.
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