CAIRO, December 5. /TASS/. The death toll from the escalation of the conflict in the Gaza Strip has exceeded 15,200, Gaza’s health ministry said.

According to the ministry, as many as 16,248 people, including 7,112 children and 4,885 women, have been killed in Israeli bombardments. More than 42,000 Palestinians have been wounded.

As many as 262 people have been killed as a result of Israel’s actions in the West Bank since October 7, Hamas claims.

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.