CAIRO, March 18. /TASS/. The death toll from Israel’s strikes on the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the current escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in early October 2023 has climbed to more than 31,700, with over 73,700 people being wounded, Gaza’s health ministry said.

According to the ministry, as many as 31,726 people have been killed, including 81 in the past 24 hours alone. As many as 116 more civilians received wounds during the past day, bringing the overall number of those wounded up to 73,792, it added.

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 240 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.