DUBAI, March 7. /TASS/. The number of hunger-related deaths recorded in Gaza Strip hospitals has grown to 20, Lebanon-based Al Mayadeen television reported.

According to the broadcaster, a 15-year-old boy was the latest victim of starvation. Al Mayadeen also said, citing UN data, that some 85% of the embattled Palestinian enclave’s residents had been forced to leave their homes and were suffering from shortages of food, clean water and drugs.

About 60% of buildings in the Gaza Strip have either been damaged or leveled to the ground.

Over 30,700 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israeli strikes since October 7, 2023.

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 of hostages. In response, Israel announced a total blockade of Gaza and started carrying out strikes on targets in the Strip and certain areas of Lebanon and Syria, eventually launching a ground operation in the enclave. Clashes have also been reported in the West Bank.