Casualties rise in Gaza Strip

Gaza’s Health Ministry has said that more than 40,300 Palestinians were killed and over 93,100 were injured as a result of the Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip that began in October 2023.

"The number of those killed as a result of Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip since October 2023 has risen to 40,265, with another 93,144 injured. Over the past 24 hours, 42 Palestinians were killed and 163 were injured as a result of shelling and airstrikes carried out by Israeli forces in various areas of the Gaza Strip," the ministry said in a statement, Caliber.Az reports, citing Russian media.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 240 hostages, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians before the crisis, and has been delivering air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes have also been reported on the West Bank.