RABAT, November 7. /TASS/. Around 1.5 million displaced persons in the Gaza Strip are living in shelters, a spokesman for the enclave’s government told the Al Jazeera television channel.

"As many as 1.5 million displaced persons in the Gaza Strip are living in shelters, including those organized in schools and hospitals," the official said, adding that since the beginning of the current escalation a total of 10,328 Palestinians have been killed and 25,956 more have been wounded. As many as 4,237 of those killed are children.

Apart from that, according to the Palestinian government official, more than 30,000 tons of explosives have been dropped on the Gaza Strip, completely destroying 40,000 housing units.

"Forty-six percent of those killed are people from Gaza’s southern areas" Israel "claims to be safe," he added.

Around 8,500 people took part in a mass rally in support of Palestine in downtown Berlin on November 4. Fifty-nine activists were detained, mostly for violating rules for holding demonstrations, in particular for placing anti-Semitic banners. Some are suspected of instigating riots and hate mongering. One of the protesters attacked a reporter and was detained.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 200 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to Israeli authorities’ aggressive actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said earlier that the IDF was expanding its ground operation in Gaza.