CAIRO, December 18. /TASS/. At least 5,000 wounded need to be evacuated from the Gaza Strip, the official representative for the enclave's Health Ministry Ashraf al-Qudra said.

"We need to urgently evacuate 5,000 wounded," the Al Jazeera TV channel quoted him as saying. Al-Qudra said the situation in shelters for displaced people is "catastrophic due to the spread of diseases and lack of medical care." He reiterated his call for international organizations to provide medicine and fuel to keep the hospitals running.

On December 1, the Israeli army accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire in effect since November 24 and announced that Israel was resuming military operations in Gaza. The Palestinian authorities have blamed the United States for the resumption of Israeli aggression.

On December 16, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported that since the beginning of the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, more than 19,000 people have died. According to the Gaza Strip Health Ministry as of December 14, at least 18,787 people have been killed in the enclave, with at least 50,897 injured.