Death toll of Palestinians in Gaza rises to 2,329: ministry

The number of Palestinian casualties in Gaza reached 2,329 deaths and 9,042 injuries on Sunday, said the Gaza-based Palestinian Health Ministry on the ninth day of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Ashraf Al-Qudra, a spokesman of the ministry, said that more than 300 people were killed and 800 others injured over the past 24 hours, most of them children and women.

He said "the Israeli raids have targeted residential neighborhoods and destroyed homes when there were still residents," adding the evacuations face great difficulties due to the massive destruction of infrastructure.

The spokesman noted that 70 percent of the population of Gaza is deprived of health services. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), a UN agency in charge of Palestinian Refugees, announced on Saturday that it has relocated its central operations center and international staff to the south.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Saturday that mass displacement from the northern Gaza Strip to the south has been ongoing since Friday morning, after Israel ordered residents to evacuate the areas ahead of military operations.

Prior to the order, over 400,000 Palestinians had been internally displaced due to the hostilities, added OCHA.