Gaza – The Gaza death toll rose over 2,000 Monday as the clock ticked towards a midnight deadline and negotiators in Cairo strove to hammer out a decisive end to weeks of bloodshed.
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Gaza’s health ministry said the death toll rose over 2,000 as more people succumbed to injuries sustained since the fighting began.
The figures showed 2,016 people had been killed and another 10,196 wounded.
Among the dead were 541 children, 250 women and 95 elderly men – or around 44 percent of the total number of victims.
Separately, the Israeli army confirmed that five of 64 soldiers killed in combat had died as a result of “friendly fire”.
As millions in and around Gaza enjoyed an eighth day of calm brought on by two back-to-back truce agreements, tensions were once again on the rise ahead of a new deadline ending a five-day ceasefire which expires at 2100 GMT.
But there was little sign of any workable consensus emerging from ongoing talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Cairo who have just 12 hours to left to either reach an agreement, accept a further extension or risk a resumption of the fighting which has wreaked destruction across the densely-populated Mediterranean coastal enclave.
The aim is to broker a long-term arrangement to halt over a month of bloody fighting which erupted on July 8 although both sides have largely lowered their guns since August 4 thanks to a series of brief truce arrangements.
Ahead of the deadline, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was to travel to Doha where he was to meet with exiled Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal on Tuesday and also hold talks with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.
Qatar is a key backer of Hamas, the de facto rulers of Gaza.
There has been so much in the Jewish press and otherwise about how bogus these figures are. Why is VIN printing a headline with a # that is so clearly meaningless?
These figures are from a war, if you tally Chicago deaths in a few weeks or less they add up to the same number and there was no war declared just another weekend in Chicago.