More than 10,000 killed in Gaza, Hamas-controlled health ministry says, as condemnation of Israel’s campaign grows

The Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in the Palestinian Gaza Strip has reported on Wednesday that more than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed so far in the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Gaza Strip, as condemnation of Israel’s campaign against the Hamas-controlled territory continues to mount.

The ministry reported that as of Wednesday, 3,353 Palestinians had been killed in the conflict, most of them civilians, along with 4,251 Palestinians seriously wounded, with another 19,243 injured in different degrees.

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was “alarmed” by recent reports of heavy civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip, and called on Israel to exercise restraint in its military campaign.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, strongly condemned the deaths of civilians, saying “the scale of the terrible toll, in particular the number of children killed in the conflict, speaks for itself.”

International human rights groups have also expressed alarm at the mounting death toll, accusing both sides of war crimes and urging an immediate ceasefire.