CAIRO, February 22. /TASS/. At least 97 people have been killed over the last day in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israeli strikes, the Palestinian enclave's Health Ministry said.

"Over the past 24 hours, 97 people died due to Israeli aggression and another 132 were injured," the ministry said in a statement on its Telegram channel. Since the beginning of the escalation, the number of dead in the Gaza Strip is 29,410, and 69,465 people were injured, the ministry specified.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas 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. On December 1, the Israeli army accused Hamas of violating the truce that had been in effect since November 24 and announced that it would resume fighting in Gaza.

On February 13, a consultative meeting of Egyptian, Israeli, Qatari, and US representatives was held in Cairo. The talks discussed a new agreement on the release of hostages, as well as the prospects for a ceasefire in Gaza. According to the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli side did not receive any new proposals from Hamas during these consultations regarding the deal providing for the release of hostages.