CAIRO, December 10. /TASS/. The death toll from the escalation of the conflict in the Gaza Strip has exceeded 15,200, Gaza’s health ministry said.

"The number of those killed as a result Israel’s aggression in the Gaza Strip has climbed up to nearly 18,000," the Al Jazeera television channel quoted the ministry’s spokesman as saying. More than 49,500 people have been wounded.

On November 22, Hamas announced an agreement with Israel, which was brokered by Egypt and Qatar, on a four-day humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip, which took effect on November 24. The deal stipulated the release of Israeli women and children being held hostage in Gaza in exchange for the release of Palestinian women and children from Israeli prisons.

The sides extended the ceasefire several times but on the morning of December 1 the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that Hamas had violated the truce in Gaza and opened fire on Israeli territory, thus prompting the IDF to resume combat operations in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian authorities placed the blame for the resumed hostilities on the United States.