CAIRO, February 18. /TASS/. The number of Palestinians killed in Israeli shelling attacks on the Gaza Strip has approached 29,000, the enclave’s Health Ministry said.

"The number of victims of the Israeli aggression has reached 28,985," the Health Ministry said in a statement quoted by Al Jazeera television. During the same period, 68,883 Palestinians were injured, according to the ministry.

In the past 24 hours alone, 127 people were killed and over 200 wounded in attacks by Israel in Gaza, the ministry added.

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 hundreds 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. Clashes have also been reported in the West Bank.