Death toll from Gaza war surpasses 70,000

• Staff at Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies of the children in southern Gaza, said the brothers, ages 8 and 11, died when an Israeli drone struck close to a school sheltering displaced people in the town of Beni Suhaila
• Mediators urged to pressure Israel to stop ceasefire violations in war-torn Palestinian enclave

DEIR AL-BALAH: The Palestinian death toll has surpassed 70,000 since the Israel-Hamas war began, Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Saturday, while a hospital said that Israeli fire killed two Palestinian children in the territory’s south.

The toll has continued to rise after the latest ceasefire took effect on Oct. 10. 

Israel still carries out strikes in response to what it has called violations of the truce, and bodies from earlier in the war are being recovered from the rubble. The Health Ministry says the Palestinian toll is now 70,100.

The war began with the attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Staff at Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies of the children in southern Gaza, said the brothers, ages 8 and 11, died when an Israeli drone struck close to a school sheltering displaced people in the town of Beni Suhaila.

Israel’s military said it killed two people who crossed into an Israeli-controlled area, “conducted suspicious activities,” and approached troops.  The statement did not mention children. 

The military said it also killed another person in a separate but similar incident in the south. At least 352 Palestinians have been killed across the territory since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect on Oct. 10, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Hamas again urged mediators on Saturday to pressure Israel to stop what it called ceasefire violations in Gaza. A US blueprint outlining the future of Gaza, which has been devastated by more than two years of war, is still in the early stages. 

The plan to secure and govern the territory authorizes an international stabilization force to provide security, approves a transitional authority, and envisions a possible future path to an independent Palestinian state. Israeli forces have pushed forward on a number of other fronts in the region in recent weeks.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Israeli soldiers were accused by Palestinians of executing two men on Thursday after footage aired by two Arab television stations showed troops shooting the men after they appeared to surrender.