Almost 25,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the current war began, the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry reported on Saturday.

The ministry put the figure killed since October 7 at 24,927, with a further 62,388 injured, a rise in the number of injured of 280 since the previous day.

The humanitarian situation remained catastrophic, as a result of the destruction and lack of provision, the UN’s humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, posted on X in the early hours of Saturday.

Many of the 1.7 million internally displaced persons were living under plastic in wintry conditions. Diarrhoea was spreading as a result of poor hygiene, and cases of Hepatitis A were also being recorded, OCHA said.

According to a report by US broadcaster CNN, Israeli troops have in their search for hostages held by Hamas desecrated 16 cemeteries in the coastal strip measuring 40 kilometres in length and up to 12 kilometres in width.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported on Saturday that an unspecified number of what it termed “terrorists” had been killed and that several rocket launchers in both the north and in Khan Younis in the south had been destroyed with the aid of the Israeli Air Force.

The IDF recently reported it had killed around 9,000 members of terrorist organizations since the start of operations. According to Israeli media, 194 Israeli soldiers have died since the start of the ground offensive.

Israel responded to the October 7 attacks mounted by Hamas and other extremist groups from the Gaza Strip initially with air strikes, and since October 27 with a ground offensive.