CAIRO, April 22. /TASS/. Over 34,100 Palestinians have been killed and another 77,000 injured as a result of the Israeli forces' military operation in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of October 2023, the enclave’s Helath Ministry said.

"The number of victims of the Israeli aggression in the Gaza Strip rose to 34,151, and another 77,084 people were injured," the Health Ministry said in a statement on its Telegram channel. The ministry said 54 people had been killed and 104 injured in the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours.

Tensions flared up again 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. In response, Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians before the crisis, and has been delivering air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes have also been reported on the West Bank. On December 1, 2023, the Israeli army accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire that had been in effect since November 24 and announced that it would resume fighting in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian officials blamed the United States for the renewed Israeli aggression.