Israel killed 25,000 Palestinian women, children since October: Pentagon

Biden says Gaza ceasefire unlikely Monday, shootings to complicate talks

February 29, 2024 09:58 PM

Israel has killed more than 25,000 Palestinian women and children since the October 7 attack by militant group Hamas, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday.

"It's over 25,000," Austin told lawmakers when asked during a House Armed Services Committee hearing for the figure on women and children killed.

The United States has backed Israel since the unprecedented Hamas attack in October that resulted in the deaths of around 1,160 people.

Israel responded to the attack with a relentless assault on Gaza that the coastal territory's health ministry said has left more than 30,000 people dead.

The number provided by Austin is within the same range, and come as Washington pushes for a ceasefire and a reduction in civilian casualties in Gaza.

Biden says Gaza ceasefire unlikely Monday, shootings to complicate talks

US President Joe Biden said a ceasefire in war-torn Gaza was now unlikely to happen by Monday, adding that a shooting incident at an aid point would likely complicate negotiations.

Biden said Thursday that the United States was checking "competing versions" of the incident in which the health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory said Israeli troops shot dead 104 people.

Earlier this week Biden had predicted a deal was possible by Monday to implement a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in exchange for the release of hostages held by Hamas.

"Hope springs eternal," Biden told reporters when asked about the ceasefire timing, as he left the White House for a pre-election trip to Texas to visit the US-Mexico border.

"I was on the telephone with people in the region... Probably not by Monday, but I'm hopeful."

The US president said he did not yet have clarity on what happened in Gaza City earlier Thursday, when one of the worst single incidents of the nearly five-month war occurred.

"We're checking that right now. There are two competing versions of what happened, I don't have an answer yet," Biden told reporters as he headed to his helicopter.

Asked if he was worried whether it would complicate the delicate negotiations for a ceasefire, Biden replied: "I know it will."

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Israeli forces there opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians at an aid distribution point Thursday, killing at least 104 people and wounding over 700.

Israeli sources confirmed that troops shot at a crowd rushing towards aid trucks, believing they "posed a threat" to Israeli troops. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office however said many were crushed by the trucks themselves.

The United States has backed Israel since the unprecedented Hamas attack on the country on October 7, but has recently pushed for a ceasefire and a reduction in civilian casualties.

The Palestinian death toll from the war has now topped 30,000, the Gaza health ministry said earlier Thursday.

Hamas's October 7 attacks resulted in the deaths of around 1,160 people, mostly civilians, Israeli figures show. Militants also took about 250 hostages, 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 31 presumed dead, according to Israel.