June 9 (UPI) -- The Israeli military has killed more than 37,000 people in Gaza amid its ongoing campaign against the Palestinian militia Hamas.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Sunday that 37,084 had been killed and 84,494 people injured since October 7. The death toll rose after a massacre in the Al-Nusairat refugee camp in which Israeli forces slayed at least 274 Palestinians and caused 698 injuries.
"There are still a number of victims under the count and on the roads that the ambulance and civil defense teams cannot reach," the Gaza Health Ministry said in its statement.
Those killed during Israel's attack included at least 64 children, 57 women and 37 people considered elderly, Al Jazeera reported. On top of that, the United Nations Children's Fund said Sunday that 90% of children in Gaza are experiencing "severe food poverty."
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"My child was crying, afraid of the sound of the plane firing at us," Hadeel Radwan, a 32-year-old mother who carried her seven-month-old daughter to safety, told Al Jazeera. "We all felt that we wouldn't survive. This brutal occupation will not let us live."
Israeli forces attacked the refugee camp to rescue four Israeli hostages captured by Hamas. The Israeli operation led to the death of three other hostages, Hamas said Sunday.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Sunday in which they discussed the "heinous massacre" at the refugee camp, the militia said in a statement.
Fidan, according to Hamas, offered his condolences to the Palestinian people and denounced the killing of people in Gaza. The diplomat also stressed the Turkish position that Hamas is a legitimate national liberation movement, according to Hamas.
On Saturday, representatives from the D8 group of countries -- Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey -- met in Istanbul and issued a joint declaration condemning Israeli violence in Gaza and the West Bank.
