Over 3,700 Palestinian kids killed in 25 days of fighting

A Palestinian man carries a dead child that was found under the rubble

More than 3,760 Palestinian children were killed in the first 25 days of the war between Israel and Hamas, according to Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry. They were hit by airstrikes, smashed by misfired rockets, burned by blasts and crushed by buildings, and among them were newborns and toddlers, avid readers, aspiring journalists and boys who thought they'd be safe in a church.

Nearly half of the crowded strip's 2.3 million inhabitants are under 18, and children account for 40 per cent of those killed so far in the war. An Associated Press analysis of Gaza Health Ministry data released last week showed that as of October 26, 2,001 children ages 12 and under had been killed, including 615 who were 3 or younger.

Displaced Palestinian kids at a tent camp in Khan Younis. Pics/AP

"When houses are destroyed, they collapse on the heads of children," writer Adam al-Madhoun said Wednesday as he comforted his 4-year-old daughter Kenzi at the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah. She survived an airstrike that ripped off her right arm, crushed her left leg and fractured her skull.

The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has reached 9,061, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, 130 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids. More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed and around 240 hostages were taken from by Hamas.

Israel's troops advance ahead as diplomatic efforts go on

Israel's ground troops were advancing toward Gaza City as diplomatic efforts intensified for at least a brief pause in the fighting in Gaza's deadliest war.

US President Joe Biden suggested a humanitarian "pause" and Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected back in the region on Friday. Arab countries, including those allied with the US and at peace with Israel, have expressed mounting unease with the war.

The opening of the Rafah border crossing, allowing hundreds of foreign passport holders and wounded Palestinians to leave Gaza on Wednesday, followed weeks of talks among Egypt, Israel, the US and Qatar, which mediates with Hamas.

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