Regional toll mounts as Middle East conflict expands

Nearly four weeks after the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran, the escalating conflict across the Middle East has resulted in thousands of deaths and widespread destruction, with humanitarian conditions deteriorating across multiple fronts.

Images emerging from affected areas show entire neighbourhoods reduced to rubble, homes destroyed, and families forced onto the streets, as per CNN report.

Speaking at a United Nations press briefing on Friday, March 27, Maria Martinez, head of the delegation for the Iranian Red Crescent, described the scale of devastation inside Iran. She said paramedics working to save survivors from collapsed buildings following US-Israeli strikes have, in some cases, discovered the bodies of their own relatives beneath the debris.

According to the Iranian Red Crescent, at least 1,900 people have been killed and more than 20,000 injured in Iran since February 28.

In Lebanon, Israeli strikes have killed 1,142 people and injured 3,315 others since March 2, the Lebanese Ministry of Health reported on Friday. The toll includes at least 122 children and 42 healthcare workers.

Authorities in Iraq say at least 96 people have been killed nationwide. In the Kurdistan Region, a semi-autonomous area, at least 13 fatalities have been reported by the regional government.

In Israel, the Israeli military said at least 19 civilians have been killed since the latest escalation. In addition, four Israeli soldiers have died in southern Lebanon.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, an Iranian missile strike killed four Palestinians, according to the Israeli military. Separately, at least five Palestinians have been killed amid a surge in Israeli settler violence since February 28, according to the Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli military operations have killed 72,267 people since October 7, 2023, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Of that total, 691 deaths have occurred since October 11, when Israel and Hamas agreed to a US-led ceasefire arrangement.

The United States has also sustained losses, with 13 service members killed since late February, according to US Central Command.

Elsewhere across the region, local authorities report that more than 30 people have been killed in countries along the Persian Gulf since February 28. Several of the victims were migrant workers, a group widely considered vulnerable due to limited protections.

By Tamilla Hasanova