CAIRO, February 5. /TASS/. Egypt has treated over 2,200 wounded people from the Gaza Strip since the escalation of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas, the country’s presidential office said.

"Egyptian doctors have admitted more than 2,200 wounded people from Gaza and carried out over 1,200 surgeries, to say nothing of the medical care that has been provided to those passing through the Rafah border crossing," Presidential Spokesman Ahmed Fahmy wrote on Facebook (prohibited in Russia due to its ownership by Meta, which has been designated as extremist) following a meeting between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Health Minister Khalid Abdul Ghaffar.

El-Sisi praised the healthcare system for providing assistance to Gaza residents, stressing that Egypt had been trying to help with the humanitarian crisis since the situation had escalated in the Palestinian enclave.

The meeting also addressed plans to build new medical facilities to ease the burden on Egyptian hospitals. The president, the prime minister and the health minister adopted a plan to set up 47 new medical facilities in eight regions of the country.

An Egyptian ambulance worker told TASS on February 1 that 30 to 50 people were evacuated from the Strip every day.

Tensions in the Middle East flared up again on October 7, 2023, after militants from the radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip, killing residents of border communities and taking people hostage. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel announced a total blockade of Gaza and started carrying out retaliatory strikes on targets in the Strip, as well as on certain areas in Lebanon and Syria. On December 1, the Israeli army accused Hamas of violating a ceasefire that had taken effect on November 24 and resumed combat operations in the Gaza Strip.