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Gaza death toll continues to rise nearly 3 months after Hamas attack on Israel

The Israeli military continued its offensives across the Gaza Strip on Saturday, reportedly killing and wounding many people.

Sunday marks three months since Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, prompting Israel's military offensive in Gaza.

Qatar-based satellite TV network Al Jazeera reported that overnight Israeli airstrikes left 18 people dead in the southern city of Khan Younis and many people were killed or wounded in an intensive attack on a refugee camp in central Gaza.

The death toll has topped 100 in recent days. Health authorities in Gaza say 22,600 people have now been killed in the enclave since the conflict began on October 7.
This means one in about every 100 people out of Gaza's population of around 2.2 million has been killed.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken began a new tour of the region on Thursday, with stops including the West Bank and Israel. He is expected to exchange views with key government officials of Israel on scaling down its military assault to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Friday that he hopes Blinken learned lessons from the past three months and realized Washington's mistakes in its support of the occupation. He expressed hope that Blinken will focus on ending the aggression in his latest tour.