GAZA, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip from ongoing Israeli attacks has risen to 27,708, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
In a press statement, the ministry said 67,147 Palestinians have been wounded in the coastal enclave since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict in October last year.
Israeli forces killed 123 Palestinians and wounded 169 others in the past 24 hours. Some victims remain under the rubble because of heavy bombardment and lack of civil defense and ambulance crews, the ministry added.
At least 12 Palestinians were killed by Israeli bombings in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah since Tuesday night, while a number of people were injured and some went missing, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
In a statement, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Wednesday warned Israel against expanding military operations to the city of Rafah that borders Egypt, saying that "any move by Israel to expand its invasion of the Gaza Strip to include the densely populated southern city of Rafah may lead to war crimes that must be prevented by all means." ■
