Gaza death toll climbs above 66,000 as Netanyahu prepares to meet Donald Trump

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed at the UN General Assembly on Friday to ‘finish the job’ against Hamas (Richard Drew/AP)

More than 66,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, Gaza’s Health Ministry has said, a day before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu heads to the White House for talks with US President Donald Trump on halting the ongoing offensive in Gaza.

The ministry said in its daily report on Sunday that the death toll has now climbed to 66,005, with a further 168,162 injured since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack which sparked the war.

Among the dead were 79 who were brought to hospitals in the past 24 hours, it added.

Mr Netanyahu has come under heavy international pressure to end the war, with key Western allies joining a growing list of countries recognising a Palestinian state over Israeli objections. The European Union is considering sanctions against Israel and there are growing moves for a sports and cultural boycott against Israel.

After dozens of delegates poured out of the hall at the UN General Assembly on Friday in protest, a defiant Mr Netanyahu told fellow world leaders that his nation “must finish the job” against Hamas in Gaza.

Mr Trump has so far stood behind Israel, but he has shown signs of impatience lately, particularly after Israel’s bombing of Qatar earlier this month in what appears to have been a failed attempt to kill Hamas’s leadership.

Dr Paul Ransom, right, of UK-Med, joins local medical staff to treat patients at a field hospital in Muwasi, near Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip (Jehad Alshrafi/AP)

Ceasefire talks have stalled since Israel’s widely condemned strike in Doha, but in Monday’s White House meeting, Mr Trump is expected to share a new 21-point proposal for an immediate ceasefire.

Forty-eight hostages are still held captive in Gaza by Hamas, around 20 of them believed by Israel to be alive.

Mr Trump’s proposal would include the release of all hostages within 48 hours and a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian enclave, according to three Arab officials briefed on the plan.

The president discussed the proposal, which is not final, with Arab leaders in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

A Hamas official said the group was briefed on the plan but has yet to receive an official offer from Egyptian and Qatari mediators. Hamas has said it is ready to “study any proposals positively and responsibly”.

The official said the group had previously said it was willing to release all hostages in return for an end to the war and a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the strip.

Israel’s offensive has destroyed vast areas of Gaza, displaced around 90% of the population and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, with experts saying Gaza City is experiencing famine.

The health ministry, part of the Hamas-run administration, does not differentiate between civilians and militants in its death toll, but has said women and children make up around half the dead.

Its figures are seen as a reliable estimate by the UN and many independent experts.