Palestinian officials say more than 10,000 people have been killed, 40% of them children

Palestinian officials now say more than 10,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, which entered its second month of fighting earlier this week. The humanitarian crisis in the Hamas-governed territory is expected to worsen and the staggering death toll – already three times higher than the number of American civilians killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks – is expected to rise as Israel’s ground invasion through Gaza City continues.

United Nations officials have stepped up their appeals for a humanitarian pause in Gaza, where whole communities have been destroyed and families are struggling for any semblance of normal life. According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, the death toll includes about 4,000 children as basic supplies are running out and health care facilities are unable to tend to the wounded.

The level of death and suffering is "hard to fathom," U.N. health agency spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told reporters in Geneva. "Every day, you think it is the worst day and then the next day is worse."

Israel declared war on Hamas after the terror group led an invasion into southern Israel on Oct. 7, and terrorists gunned down, slaughtered and burned 1,400 people in Israeli border towns, mostly civilians. Hamas also took approximately 240 hostages.