The death toll in Gaza has topped 46,000 as a study suggests it could be much higher, with some pinning hopes of a ceasefire on Trump.
Tel Aviv – More than 600 people died as a result of the attacks of the Israeli army Gaza Strip In the first 10 days of 2025, the death toll since the war began on October 7, 2023, has surpassed 46,000, according to the Hamas-run Palestinian territory’s health ministry, and a new estimate suggests it could be much higher. Israel entered the war after Hamas carried out an unprecedented terrorist act, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
The total death toll in Gaza is just over 2% of the tiny enclave’s population, with an average of about 3,000 people killed every month, or 100 every day, since Hamas-led terrorists attacked southern Israel 15 months ago.
Israel rejected the figures provided by Palestinian officials and blamed Hamas for all the deaths in Gaza, accusing the group of using civilians as human shields. But a new study published in the medical journal The Lancet suggests that the figure provided by Gaza’s health ministry for the first nine months of the war could be as low as 40%.
The Lancet study suggests that the death toll in the Gaza Strip is low
From the start of the war to June 30, 2024, Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported fewer than 38,000 deaths from traumatic injuries, but the Lancet estimates that peer-reviewed research based on data from health authorities, social media obituaries and an online survey, it found that more than 64,000 people were killed during that period.
CBS News cannot independently verify the figures, and Israeli authorities have blocked Western journalists from entering Gaza to report independently since the war began.
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The Lancet noted that its estimates did not include thousands more people believed to be still buried under the rubble, or who lacked food, water or medical care during the war.
“After losing my family, I’m torn inside,” Mahmoud Sukkar, 21, told CBS News’ local team in Gaza. In the first month of the war, all 17 members of his family, including his mother, father and twin brother, were killed when Israel struck their home in Gaza City.
Sukkar, the only survivor, now lives alone in a tent camp in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza.
“I have no wish,” said Sukkar. “I want to visit my family’s grave. All I want is to visit their graves.”
Israel continues to attack the Houthis in Yemen
As Israel continues its offensive against remnants of Hamas, the Israel Defense Forces said on Friday that its naval and air forces had carried out several strikes. Targets of Houthi rebels on the west coast and interior of Yemen, including ports and a power plant.
The Houthis, like Hamas, are backed by Iran and have launched repeated missile and drone attacks on merchant ships, US and Israeli warships, and Israeli territory in support of their allies since the start of the Gaza war. The US has also carried out numerous strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen over the past year.
“The Houthi terrorist regime is central to Iran’s terrorist axis, and their attacks on international shipping and routes continue to destabilize the region and the wider world,” Israel’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
“As promised, the Houthis are paying a heavy price for their aggression against us and will continue to pay,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a separate statement.
Progress, but no progress in ceasefire talks
Meanwhile, in the Qatari capital Doha, the US president said on Thursday that American and Arab negotiators had made “real progress” this week towards a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and an agreement to release hostages in the waning days of the Biden administration, but announcing any major progress or did not appear to be sufficient to ensure that higher-ranking officials were flown back to the region.
“We’re making some real progress, I met with the negotiators today,” Mr. Biden told reporters at the White House. “I still hope that we can achieve a prisoner exchange. At the moment, Hamas is blocking that exchange, but I think we can do it, we have to do it.”
US ambassadors Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk were trying to hash out the technical details of the proposal, but Israeli intelligence chief David Barnea did not fly to Doha this week, as Israeli media said, and there was no sign of CIA chief William. Burns also visited Qatar. Both men have repeatedly attended talks when there was hope of a potential agreement.
One of the glaring issues in the talks is the unconfirmed status of 34 Israeli hostages in Gaza, which Hamas resurfaced this week after first appearing last summer. Israel demanded to know who is alive and who is dead in the list. Hamas has demanded a four-day ceasefire to contact its militants in Gaza to confirm the status of the hostages, saying ongoing Israeli operations make it impossible to assess the group otherwise.
Family members and friends of the hostages have been protesting regularly in Israel, demanding that Netanyahu’s government reach a deal to return them all at the same time. At least 30 people are believed to be dead, although Israeli officials believe there are still about 100 hostages being held by Hamas or its allies in Gaza.
If a truce is reached, the first phase would involve swapping hostages with Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and increasing humanitarian aid to Gaza.
But another major obstacle is Hamas’s consistent demand for the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip – which Israel has so far refused to accept.
Some Israelis and Palestinians are expecting “help from Donald Trump.”
If no agreement is reached at the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump on January 20, some Israelis and Palestinians hope he will bring a much-needed change to the talks, potentially for the better.
“He’s unpredictable and he’s brave,” Ilay David, the brother of 24-year-old hostage Eyvatar David, told CBS News at a rally in Jerusalem on Friday. “We need to think outside the box, and Trump can bring about that change.”
“Donald Trump is mostly known for being a businessman,” said Ameen Abu Fkheida, a 19-year-old Palestinian cybersecurity student at Birzeit University in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. “I don’t think he’s going to be a friend (of the Palestinians), but I think there will be some kind of help from Donald Trump on the Gaza issue, probably a truce, a prisoner exchange or something. Calm down the current situation in Gaza.”
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