CAIRO, December 14. /TASS/. The death toll from the escalation of the conflict in the Gaza Strip has exceeded 18,70, Gaza’s health ministry said.

Thus, according to the ministry, as many as 18,787 people have been killed and at least 50,897 have been wounded in Gaza since October 7.

The ministry said that more than 300 wounded people and 179 bodies of those killed have been taken to hospitals "in recent hours." Many bodies "are remining under the debris and on the streets," it added.

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.