CAIRO, April 17. /TASS/. The death toll in the Gaza Strip since the start of the Israel military operation has grown to 33,899, with 76,664 injured, the Palestinian enclave’s Health Ministry said.

"The number of those dead as a result of Israeli aggression since October 7 of last year has increased to 33,899, with 76,664 wounded," the ministry wrote on its Telegram channel.

According it, "just over the past 24 hours alone, 56 people have been killed and 89 wounded." Many bodies remain under the rubble, and medics have trouble reaching them.

Tensions flared up in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 240 hostages, including women, children and the elderly.

Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Israel announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and has been delivering rocket attacks on Gaza as well as some districts in Lebanon and Syria, and then started a ground operation in the enclave. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.