Over 55,000 Palestinians killed in ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza: Gaza Health Ministry
Deir al-Balah (Gaza Strip): The death toll of Palestinians in the ongoing Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip has surpassed 55,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The figure marks a catastrophic human cost in what many international observers, rights groups, and legal experts have called a campaign of genocide against the Palestinian people.
The Health Ministry, which is staffed by medical professionals operating under the Hamas-run administration, reported on Wednesday that 55,104 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the onslaught, with 127,394 injured. It noted that women and children make up more than half of the fatalities. Many more are believed to be buried under rubble or remain unreachable in devastated zones.
The attacks by Israel escalated in October 2023, following an attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7 and years of blockade, occupation, and systemic repression in Gaza and the West Bank. While Israeli officials routinely claim that only fighters are targeted, the scale of destruction and the civilian death toll suggest otherwise, with entire neighborhoods flattened, hospitals destroyed, and over 90% of Gaza’s population displaced.
Vast portions of Gaza, including what was once the densely populated city of Rafah, have been converted into a militarized buffer zone, forcibly cleared of their inhabitants. Observers note that the level of devastation is unprecedented, with some calling it the most destructive military campaign since World War II.
In recent months, a 2½-month Israeli blockade, imposed after the collapse of a temporary ceasefire, deepened fears of mass starvation. Although partially lifted in May with a new aid mechanism backed by Israel and the US, the system has been marked by chaos, limited access, looting, and continued Israeli restrictions, the United Nations has said.
Israel accuses Hamas of diverting aid, but the UN and international humanitarian agencies deny any organized siphoning of supplies by Palestinian fighters. Aid deliveries remain sporadic and inadequate, as Gaza’s health and infrastructure systems have largely collapsed.
Israel claims to have killed over 20,000 Palestinian fighters, a number it has not substantiated with evidence and acknowledges that Hamas continues to control parts of Gaza outside of active combat zones. 55 Israeli hostages remain in Gaza, fewer than half believed to be alive.
Hamas has indicated that it would release the hostages in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal, a permanent ceasefire, and the release of Palestinian prisoners. It has also offered to transfer governance to a politically independent Palestinian council. Israel, under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has rejected these terms, insisting instead on temporary ceasefires only to retrieve hostages.
Netanyahu has stated that Israel intends to maintain indefinite control over Gaza and has even spoken of encouraging the “voluntary emigration” of its population, a plan widely condemned as ethnic cleansing and in violation of international law.
With over half of Gaza’s population now homeless and tens of thousands dead, the humanitarian catastrophe continues to worsen amid what Palestinian advocates and legal scholars are increasingly describing as a state-led campaign of displacement, destruction, and genocide.
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Ex-bureaucrat Raj Kumar Goyal sworn in as CIC; eight new information commissioners take oath
New Delhi (PTI): After a gap of nine years, transparency watchdog Central Information Commission attained its full strength with the appointment of former IAS officer Raj Kumar Goyal and eight other information commissioners, who took the oath of office on Monday.
A three-member panel headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week recommended their names for the appointment.
President Droupadi Murmu administered the oath of office to Goyal as the chief information commissioner (CIC) at a ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, her office said in a communique.
The event was attended by Vice President C P Radhakrishnan and Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh, among others.
Goyal is a 1990-batch (retired) IAS officer of the Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram-Union Territories (AGMUT) cadre. He superannuated as secretary, Department of Justice under the Ministry of Law and Justice, on August 31.
He has also served as secretary (border management) in the Home Ministry and held key posts both at the Centre and in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The post of CIC fell vacant after Heeralal Samariya completed his term on September 13.
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The Commission is headed by a CIC and can have a maximum of 10 information commissioners. With the new appointments, the Commission attained its full strength after a gap of over nine years, according to transparency activists.
In the presence of two incumbent Information Commissioners, Anandi Ramalingam and Vinod Kumar Tiwari, Goyal administered the oath of office to eight new appointees at the swearing-in ceremony.
They included former Railway Board chief Jaya Verma Sinha, former IPS officer Swagat Das -- who held key posts in the Intelligence Bureau, Home Ministry and Cabinet Secretariat, among others -- Central Secretariat Service (CSS) officer Sanjeev Kumar Jindal, former IAS officer Surendra Singh Meena and ex-Indian Forest Service officer Khushwant Singh Sethi.
Senior journalists P R Ramesh and Ashutosh Chaturvedi, and former Indian Legal Service officer Sudha Rani Relangi, have also been sworn in as information commissioners.
Relangi has also worked as the director of prosecution, Central Bureau of Investigation and joint secretary and legislative counsel in the Ministry of Law and Justice.
The names of the CIC and eight information commissioners were cleared during the meeting of the Modi-led committee comprising Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi.
