BEIRUT, December 25. /TASS/. The number of Gaza residents killed since tensions escalated on October 7 has increased to 20,674, the Palestinian enclave’s Health Ministry said in a statement on Telegram.

According to the agency, another 54,536 people were injured.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after Gaza Strip-based Hamas militants 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.