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Arab World

Death Toll in Gaza Strip from Israel-Hamas War Tops 45,000, Palestinians Say

People search through the debris of a house that was destroyed in an Israeli strike the day before, which killed Al Jazeera journalist Ahmad Baker Al-Louh along with members of the Civil Defense, in Nuseirat on December 16, 2024. (AFP)
People search through the debris of a house that was destroyed in an Israeli strike the day before, which killed Al Jazeera journalist Ahmad Baker Al-Louh along with members of the Civil Defense, in Nuseirat on December 16, 2024. (AFP)
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Death Toll in Gaza Strip from Israel-Hamas War Tops 45,000, Palestinians Say

People search through the debris of a house that was destroyed in an Israeli strike the day before, which killed Al Jazeera journalist Ahmad Baker Al-Louh along with members of the Civil Defense, in Nuseirat on December 16, 2024. (AFP)
People search through the debris of a house that was destroyed in an Israeli strike the day before, which killed Al Jazeera journalist Ahmad Baker Al-Louh along with members of the Civil Defense, in Nuseirat on December 16, 2024. (AFP)

Health officials in the Gaza Strip said on Monday the death toll from the 14-month war between Israel and Hamas has topped 45,000 people.

The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but it has said that more than half of the fatalities are women and children. The Israeli military says it has killed more than 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.

The Health Ministry said 45,028 people have been killed and 106,962 have been wounded since the start of the war in October 2023. It has said the real toll is higher because thousands of bodies are still buried under rubble or in areas that medics cannot access.

The latest war has been by far the deadliest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas, with the death toll now amounting to roughly 2% of Gaza’s entire prewar population of about 2.3 million.

Israel claims Hamas is responsible for the civilian death toll because it operates from within civilian areas in the densely populated Gaza Strip. Rights groups and Palestinians say Israel has failed to take sufficient precautions to avoid civilian deaths.

The war began when Hamas-led fighters stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. Most of the rest were released during a cease-fire last year.

Overnight strike

Earlier, an Israeli strike killed at least 10 people, including a family of four, in Gaza City overnight, Palestinian medics said Monday.

The strike late Sunday hit a house in Gaza City’s eastern Shijaiyah neighborhood, according to the Health Ministry’s emergency service. Rescuers recovered the bodies of 10 people from under the rubble, including those of two parents and their two children, it said.

A separate strike on a school on Sunday in the southern city of Khan Younis killed at least 13 people, including six children and two women, according to Nasser Hospital where the bodies were taken. The hospital initially reported the strike had killed 16 people, but it later revised the death toll as the three other bodies had been from a separate strike that hit a house.

The Israeli military said it had “conducted a precise strike on Hamas terrorists who were operating inside a command and control center embedded within a compound” that had served as a school in Khan Younis. It did not provide evidence.

In central Gaza's Nuseirat urban refugee camp, mourners gathered for the funeral of a Palestinian journalist working for the Qatari-based Al Jazeera TV network who was killed Sunday in a strike on a point for Gaza's civil defense agency. They carried his body through the street from the hospital, his blue bulletproof vest resting atop.

The strike also killed three civil defense workers, including the local head of the agency, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. The civil defense is Gaza’s main rescue agency and operates under the Hamas-run government.

Al Jazeera said Ahmad Baker Al-Louh, 39, had been covering rescue operations of a family wounded in an earlier bombing when he was killed.

The Israeli military said it had targeted Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters “who were operating in a command and control center embedded in the offices of the ‘Civil Defense’ organization in Nuseirat.” It accused the journalist of having been a member of Islamic Jihad, an accusation his colleagues in Gaza denied.

Gaza's civil defense also rejected the claims that fighters had been operating from the site.

“We were stunned by the Israeli occupation statement,” Mahmoud Al-Louh, the journalist’s cousin, told The Associated Press. “These claims are lies and misleading to cover up this crime.”

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Arab World

Lebanon Bets on US Pressure to Win Israeli Concessions

Displaced residents return to southern Lebanon (AFP)
Displaced residents return to southern Lebanon (AFP)
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Lebanon Bets on US Pressure to Win Israeli Concessions

Displaced residents return to southern Lebanon (AFP)
Displaced residents return to southern Lebanon (AFP)

US President Donald Trump announced a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, opening the door to direct negotiations between the two sides.

Without a truce, the war between Israel and Hezbollah would remain open-ended, bringing more destruction and displacement to southern Lebanon.

But a ceasefire alone is not enough unless it runs in parallel with Lebanese-Israeli talks and can be extended to allow time for a deal, a ministerial source told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Trump’s move also satisfied Iran by involving it in the contacts that led to the truce, while aligning with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, who made a ceasefire a precondition for negotiations.

Washington brings Iran in

Washington drew Iran into the ceasefire in hopes of extracting concessions by pressing Hezbollah to uphold the truce and accept joining the government in direct talks, the source said.

The talks still face opposition from the Shiite duo, Hezbollah and Amal, despite mounting local and international pressure to unify behind a Lebanese delegation expected to be headed by former ambassador Simon Karam.

No meeting is expected soon between Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House under Trump’s sponsorship, at least during the ceasefire.

Any such meeting should seal a comprehensive agreement, not launch negotiations, the source said.

He added that there is no need to rush. The priority is for Washington to press Israel to offer incentives that could help secure a deal. Without that, a meeting would be meaningless as long as Israeli forces remain, residents are barred from returning south of the Litani River, Lebanese prisoners are held, and towns face systematic destruction.

Under such conditions, the source asked, would a meeting simply impose a reality rejected by Aoun, who insists the timing is wrong unless Israel shows goodwill on the ground toward ending its occupation.

Separating Iran from Lebanon

The source said a ceasefire is essential to start talks, but involving Iran does not mean Lebanon will tie its fate to Tehran’s negotiations with Washington, contrary to claims by a Shiite duo source.

That source suggested Lebanon would be part of a broader US-Iran settlement that could ease tensions, without explaining how this would reassure the Lebanese.

Washington’s outreach to Iran to help resume talks in Islamabad does not mean handing Lebanon’s file to Tehran, the source said, noting strong domestic, Arab and international opposition to linking the two tracks.

He questioned how Iran can negotiate directly with the United States while Lebanon is denied the same option in the absence of alternatives.

He also asked what alternative exists, and whether Lebanon can withstand another war after Hezbollah backed Gaza and Iran without returning to the government’s authority.

He raised doubts over how returning residents can be reassured, as areas south of the Litani have been devastated and are no longer fit for living.

Residents have the right to regain stability and ease fears about their future while awaiting reconstruction, which hinges on Hezbollah accepting the state’s monopoly on arms as a core item in negotiations. In return, Washington would need to secure Israel’s withdrawal and complete border demarcation in line with the armistice.

The question remains whether the Shiite duo will continue to reject direct talks overseen by Aoun, who insists on fully liberating the south.

That puts pressure on Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who has voiced reservations, as Aoun and international actors continue to seek a unified Lebanese position to prevent the ceasefire from unraveling.

Arab World

Aoun Says Future Deal Will Not Cede Lebanese Territory, Country No Longer ‘Arena for Anyone’s Wars’

A photograph released by the Lebanese Presidency on April 17, 2026, shows Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun delivering a televised address to the Lebanese people from the Baabda Presidential Palace, east of the capital Beirut. (Lebanese Presidency)
A photograph released by the Lebanese Presidency on April 17, 2026, shows Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun delivering a televised address to the Lebanese people from the Baabda Presidential Palace, east of the capital Beirut. (Lebanese Presidency)
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Aoun Says Future Deal Will Not Cede Lebanese Territory, Country No Longer ‘Arena for Anyone’s Wars’

A photograph released by the Lebanese Presidency on April 17, 2026, shows Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun delivering a televised address to the Lebanese people from the Baabda Presidential Palace, east of the capital Beirut. (Lebanese Presidency)
A photograph released by the Lebanese Presidency on April 17, 2026, shows Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun delivering a televised address to the Lebanese people from the Baabda Presidential Palace, east of the capital Beirut. (Lebanese Presidency)

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Friday that any future deal reached by the government would not cede any ‌territory or ‌undermine Lebanon's national ‌rights, ⁠without saying whether ⁠he was referring to prospective talks with Israel.

The televised address was ⁠his first speech ‌since ‌the US brokered a ‌ceasefire to ‌end fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah on Thursday. ‌

The text of the deal ⁠says ⁠Israel and Lebanon would hold direct talks to produce a "peace between the two countries".

Aoun said Lebanon was on the verge of a "new phase" of "permanent agreements."

"Now, we all stand before a new phase," he added, stressing "it is the phase of transition from working on a ceasefire to working on permanent agreements that preserve the rights of our people, the unity of our land, and the sovereignty of our nation."

He added that direct talks with Israel were "not a sign of weakness nor a concession... negotiations do not mean, and will never mean, giving up any right, conceding any principle, or compromising the sovereignty of this nation."

Moreover, Aoun stressed that Lebanon was no longer an "arena" for anyone's wars.

"We are confident that we will save Lebanon... we have reclaimed Lebanon and Lebanon's decision-making power for the first time in nearly half a century," he declared, adding that "today, we negotiate for ourselves... we are no longer a pawn in anyone's game, nor an arena for anyone's wars, and we never will be again."

"I hereby affirm... that there will be no agreement that infringes upon our national rights, diminishes the dignity of our steadfast people, or relinquishes an iota of this nation's soil."

Arab World

Hezbollah Tallies Its Dead from Israel War, Estimates Exceed 1,000

A woman walks next to an ambulance at the site of an Israeli strike carried out before a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel went into effect, in Tyre, Lebanon, April 17, 2026. (Reuters)
A woman walks next to an ambulance at the site of an Israeli strike carried out before a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel went into effect, in Tyre, Lebanon, April 17, 2026. (Reuters)
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Hezbollah Tallies Its Dead from Israel War, Estimates Exceed 1,000

A woman walks next to an ambulance at the site of an Israeli strike carried out before a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel went into effect, in Tyre, Lebanon, April 17, 2026. (Reuters)
A woman walks next to an ambulance at the site of an Israeli strike carried out before a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel went into effect, in Tyre, Lebanon, April 17, 2026. (Reuters)

Hezbollah said its fighters would “keep their fingers on the trigger” hours after a ceasefire took effect between Lebanon and Israel, warning it would not stay silent over any Israeli violations and would not repeat its past restraint under the October 2024 ceasefire, when Israel continued attacks and assassinations against its members and commanders.

In recent hours, the Iran-backed party focused on helping large numbers of displaced people return to their homes, while tracking Israeli movements in occupied areas and preparing for a possible new confrontation at any moment.

Death toll unclear

People closely following Hezbollah said it was still counting its dead, with no final toll yet, as many fighters remain under rubble in villages and towns that saw fierce clashes, including the southern towns of Khiam and Bint Jbeil, where Israeli forces are deployed, complicating search efforts.

Some bodies are difficult to identify, while others have been taken captive.

Sources said Hezbollah would not, for now or in the near future, announce casualty figures, as it did in the previous war.

It stopped issuing official death notices after the toll passed 500 and is maintaining that approach, they said, with estimates suggesting the number is high and may exceed 1,000, particularly after heavy fighting in Khiam and Bint Jbeil.

Hezbollah statement

In a statement after the ceasefire, Hezbollah said it carried out 2,184 military operations during the 45-day battle from March 2 to April 16.

It said its drones and rocket fire struck Israeli settlements and cities from the Lebanese border to beyond Tel Aviv, up to 160 km deep.

It said its fighters conducted about 49 operations a day, adding: “The hands of these fighters will remain on the trigger, on guard against the enemy’s treachery and any violation of its commitments.”

Hezbollah lawmakers on Friday accompanied displaced residents returning to their towns and villages in the south, Bekaa Valley, and Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said the group would accept no surrender or submission.

“This issue is settled for us. If the Americans want to give the Israeli enemy freedom of movement, and if some Lebanese officials submit and make concessions, that will have no application on the ground,” he said, warning that the ceasefire “must not become a tool for the enemy to blackmail the authorities.”

He added: “The Lebanese authorities must withdraw from direct negotiations that will only lead to submission to Israeli dictates. This threatens Lebanon’s future and fate.”

People check destruction behind posters of Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem (bottom) and a killed Hezbollah member in Beirut's southern suburbs after a 10-day ceasefire with Israel came into effect on April 17, 2026. (AFP)

‘A major defeat’

While Hezbollah and its supporters frame the outcome as a victory, security and defense analyst Riad Kahwaji told Asharq al Awsat the battlefield suggests otherwise.

“When the war began, the Israelis were in five points, while Hezbollah fighters were active along axes such as Naqoura, Kfar Kila, and Aita al-Shaab. Today, Israeli forces are deeper inside Lebanese territory,” he said.

“Israeli control has reached 10 km, compared with around 2 or 3 km before. Hezbollah lost territory, was forced to retreat, its death toll is in the hundreds, its number of captives has risen, and the scale of destruction in the south, the southern suburbs and the Bekaa is many times greater,” Kahwaji added.

He said tens of thousands have been displaced after their homes were destroyed. “This is defeat, in every sense of the word.”

Kahwaji said that even if Israeli soldiers were killed, their numbers were not comparable to Hezbollah’s losses, and that the scale of damage in Lebanon versus Israel underscored the imbalance.

“Hezbollah considers its survival and ability to fire rockets a victory, even though it has again shown it acts as an Iranian tool and entered the war in support of Iran,” he stressed.

Ready for another round

Political writer Qassem Kassir, who is closely familiar with Hezbollah’s position, offered a sharply different view, saying the group had emerged stronger than after the 2024 war.

“If we do not say it won, what is certain is that Israel failed to achieve its military and security goals. Tel Aviv was unable to target Hezbollah’s leadership. Although some commanders were killed, the number is very small compared with the previous war,” he said.

Kassir said Hezbollah had “managed the battle with precision and success” and was preparing for a possible new confrontation, unless comprehensive solutions are reached, including a full Israeli withdrawal, the return of captives, an end to attacks and launch of reconstruction.