CAIRO, February 4. /TASS/. The number of Palestinians killed in Israeli shelling attacks on the Gaza Strip has approached 27,400 with over 66,600 people injured, the enclave’s Health Ministry said.

"The number of victims of Israeli aggression since last October has grown to 27,365, with 66,630 people wounded," it said in a statement on its Telegram channel. The agency noted that in the Gaza Strip, at least "127 people have died, 178 sustained wounds" over the past 24 hours. The statement stresses that some bodies still remain under the rubble where medics 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.