CAIRO, April 25. /TASS/. The Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip since the start of the Israel military operation has risen to some 34,300, with almost 77,300 people being injured, the Palestinian enclave’s Health Ministry said.

"The number of those killed as a result of Israeli aggression since October 7 of last year has increased to 34,305 and 77,293 others have been wounded," the ministry wrote on its Telegram channel. According to it, "over the past 24 hours alone, 43 people have been killed and another 64 wounded."

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 seige 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.

On December 1, the Israeli army accused Hamas of violating the truce that had been in force since November 24 and announced that it was again going to hostilities in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority blamed the US for the renewed Israeli aggression.