The death toll in Gaza reaches 46,000, with one study indicating that it may be much higher, and some are pinning hopes for a ceasefire on Trump.

Tel Aviv — Israeli military raids resulted in the deaths of more than 600 people in the Gaza Strip Gaza Strip In the first 10 days of 2025, bringing the death toll to more than 46,000 since the war began on October 7, 2023, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in the Palestinian territories, and one new estimate suggests the number could be much higher. Israel launched the war after Hamas carried out its unprecedented terrorist attack, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage.

The total death toll in Gaza represents just over 2% of the population of the small enclave, where an average of about 3,000 people have been killed every month or 100 people every day since Hamas-led terrorists attacked southern Israel 15 months ago.

Israel rejected the numbers presented by Palestinian officials and accused Hamas of responsibility for all deaths in Gaza, accusing the movement of using civilians as human shields. But new research published in the Lancet medical journal suggests that the figure given by the Gaza Ministry of Health for the first nine months of the war could have been an underestimate by up to 40%.

The Lancet study suggests that the death toll in Gaza is an underestimate

From the start of the war until June 30, 2024, the Gaza Ministry of Health said that just under 38,000 people had been killed due to traumatic injuries, but the Lancet estimates – published in the 2024 issue Peer review study Based on data from health authorities, social media obituaries and an online survey – more than 64,000 people were killed during that period.

CBS News has been unable to independently verify the numbers, and Israeli authorities have prevented Western journalists from entering Gaza to report independently since the war began.

The Lancet noted that its estimates do not include thousands of other people believed to still be buried under the rubble, or those who died due to a lack of access to food, water, or medical care during the war.

“I am broken inside after losing my family,” Mahmoud Sukkar, 21, told a local CBS News team in Gaza. All 17 members of his family, including his mother, father and twin brother, were killed when an Israeli raid hit their home in Gaza City in the first month of the war.

Sukkar, the only survivor, now lives alone in a camp in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

“I don’t have any desires,” Sukkar said. “I want to visit my family’s graves. My only wish is to visit their graves.”

Israel continues to attack the Houthis in Yemen

While Israel continues its strikes against the remnants of Hamas, the Israeli Defense Forces said on Friday that its naval and air forces bombed several Houthi goals On and inside the western coast of Yemen, including ports and a power plant.

The Houthis, like Hamas, are supported by Iran, and have launched repeated missile and drone attacks on commercial ships, US and Israeli military vessels, and Israeli territory in support of their allies since the start of the war in Gaza. The United States also carried out several strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen over the past year.

The Israeli army said in a statement, “The Houthi terrorist regime is an essential part of the Iranian terror axis, and their attacks on international shipping routes and ships continue to destabilize the region and the wider world.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a separate statement, “As promised – the Houthis are paying and will continue to pay a heavy price for their aggression against us.”

Progress, but no breakthroughs in ceasefire talks

In Doha, Qatar, American and Arab negotiators made “real progress” this week toward reaching an agreement between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire and hostage release in the final days of the Biden administration, the US president said Thursday, but reached no agreement. This does not appear to be enough to announce any major breakthrough, or to ensure the return of high-ranking officials to the region.

“We are making some real progress,” Biden told reporters at the White House. “I met with the negotiators today.” He added: “I still hope that we can do a prisoner exchange. Hamas is the one standing in the way of this exchange now, but I think we may be able to get it done, and we need to get it done.” “

US envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk were working out the technical details of the proposal, but Israeli intelligence chief David Barnea did not travel to Doha this week as Israeli media said he might do, and there was no indication that CIA chief William Barnia did not travel to Doha this week as Israeli media said he might do. He travels to Doha this week. Burns was also in Qatar. The two men repeatedly joined the talks when there was hope of a possible agreement.

One apparent sticking point in the talks is the uncertain status of 34 Israeli hostages in Gaza who were included in a document that Hamas resurfaced this week after first appearing last summer. Israel demanded to know who was on the list, who was still alive and who had died. Hamas demanded a four-day ceasefire in order to contact its network of activists across Gaza to ascertain the status of the hostages, saying that ongoing Israeli operations make it impossible for the movement to assess otherwise.

Family members and friends of the hostages have protested regularly in Israel to demand that Netanyahu’s government conclude a deal to return them all to their homeland at the same time. Israeli officials believe about 100 hostages are still being held by Hamas or its allies in Gaza, although at least 30 are believed to be dead.

If a ceasefire agreement is reached, the first phase will include an exchange of hostages for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, along with increased humanitarian aid to Gaza.

But another major obstacle is Hamas’s persistent demand for the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip – something that Israel has so far refused to accept.

Some Israelis and Palestinians hope for ‘help from Donald Trump’

If an agreement is not reached by the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump on January 20, some Israelis — and Palestinians — hope the president will bring about the change needed in the negotiations, perhaps for the better.

“He’s unpredictable and he’s brave,” Eli David, the 24-year-old brother of hostage Ivatar David, told CBS News during a rally in Jerusalem on Friday afternoon. “We have to think outside the box, and Trump can make that change.”

“Donald Trump is mostly known as a businessman,” said Amin Abu Fakhida, a 19-year-old Palestinian cybersecurity student at Birzeit University in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. He added, “I don’t think he will be a friend (of the Palestinians), but I think there will be some kind of help from Donald Trump regarding the Gaza issue, which will probably be a ceasefire or a prisoner exchange or something like that.” “Calming the current situation in Gaza.”