CAIRO, February 1. /TASS/. The number of fatalities in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israeli strikes has surpassed 27,000 with over 66,000 people sustaining wounds, the Health Ministry of the Palestinian enclave reported.

"Since October 7 of last year, the number of fatalities as a result of Israeli aggression has increased to 27,019, with 66,139 individuals wounded," the ministry said in a statement on its Telegram channel.

According to the Health Ministry, over the past 24 hours, as a result of Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip "118 people have been killed, 190 sustained wounds." The statement stresses that many bodies still remain under the rubble and on the roads where ambulance crews and civil defense representatives cannot reach them.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza-based Palestinian radical group Hamas staged a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel has declared a state of war readiness; announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians; and began delivering air strikes on the enclave and certain parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are underway in the West Bank as well.