THE death toll in Gaza passed 10,000 today as Israel continues its relentless bombardment of the territory.

The shocking death toll comes as Belgian transport workers made good on their earlier promise and refused to unload a shipment of military equipment from the US bound for Israel.

The Gaza Ministry of Health said the total number of Palestinians killed now stands at 10,022, including 4,104 children.

And while US President Joe Biden has disputed the number of Palestinians killed by the Israelis, the Gaza Health Ministry has released the names and identity numbers of each person to authenticate the numbers.

But thousands more are trapped or dead beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings, meaning the number killed is likely to be far higher.

While 1,400 Israelis are also reported to have been killed since the surprise Hamas uprising on October 7, the unprecedented number of Palestinian deaths has sparked worldwide demands for a ceasefire.

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament general secretary Kate Hudson said: “There must be a ceasefire. The killing must stop. The mass expression of public opinion has never been more important, to force our government to end its support for these deaths. 

“I urge everyone to join next Saturday’s march calling for a ceasefire. There is no military solution to this suffering.”

Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP Diane Abbott said: “There is a massacre going on in Gaza. Any politician that stands by refusing to support a ceasefire should be ashamed.”

In an article for Al Jazeera published today Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn said: “We need an immediate ceasefire, followed by an urgent investigation by the International Criminal Court” into the war crimes being committed by the Israelis.

No Cold War Britain’s Fiona Edwards said: “There is a growing and overwhelming global majority for an immediate ceasefire.

“It is only due to the political, diplomatic and military support of the US and its lackeys such as the British government that Israel is in a position to continue its daily massacres in Gaza.”

Following the 300,000-strong protest in Washington DC on Saturday, the largest-ever US demonstration in solidarity with the Palestinians, People’s Forum executive director Manolo De Los Santos said the numbers represented a “new phase in the struggle to free Palestine.”

Some 800,000 people have heeded Israeli military orders to flee to southern Gaza, even though many evacuees have also come under fire from the Israelis.

Some 2,000 people, many carrying only what they could hold in their arms, walked down Gaza’s main north-south highway on Sunday. 

“The children saw tanks for the first time. Oh world, have mercy on us,” said one Palestinian man, who declined to give his name.

Some 1.5 million Palestinians, or around 70 per cent of Gaza’s population, have fled their homes since the war began. 

For those remaining food, medicine, fuel and water have all but run out.

United Nations-run schools, which have been turned into makeshift shelters, are beyond capacity, with many sleeping on the streets outside.

But even these UN-run facilities have come under attack from the Israelis. 

Last week UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini said 72 of his staff had been killed. 

He added that despite the heavy loss of colleagues, his staff “remain committed to do whatever is possible to provide support to the people in Gaza.”

For the third time since Israeli attacks began mobile phone and internet services were blocked by the Israelis on Sunday night. 

Aid workers say the outages make it even harder for civilians to seek safety or even to call ambulances.

Israel has so far rejected pressure, mainly from nations of the global South, for a ceasefire.

It has also turned down the suggestion by the US that it should pause its attacks to facilitate humanitarian aid deliveries and the release of some of the estimated 240 prisoners of war seized by Hamas.

Instead Israel has intensified its attacks and on Monday claimed its forces had cut northern Gaza from the rest of the besieged territory and had hit 450 targets overnight, with ground troops having taken over a Hamas compound. 

The devastation of Gaza has also taken a huge toll on employment.

In a new report the International Labour Organisation said today that the equivalent of at least 182,000 jobs have been lost in Gaza since the Israeli bombardment began on October 7.

ILO regional director for Arab states Ruba Jaradat said the current crisis “has caused vast damage to jobs and businesses, with reverberations that will be felt for many years to come.”

Meanwhile transport workers in Belgium made good on their promise not to handle any arms shipments to Israel.

On Sunday workers at the Liege airport, in the east of the country, one of the most important air hubs in Europe, rejected the shipment of US weapons to Tel Aviv.

The protest was carried out by air terminal unions, CNE, Setca, Transcom and UBT. 

The unions claim they have received evidence that the transfer of weapons from the US has been coming through Liege for weeks.

The unions said in a statement that they “refuse to be complicit in war crimes that may be committed with the material going to Israel and Palestine.”