CAIRO, May 24. /TASS/. The material damage inflicted on the Gaza Strip as a result of the Israeli military operation since the beginning of October 2023 has now exceeded $30 billion, Egypt’s Al-Qahera el-Ekhbariya TV channel said.
According to it, the Gaza administration reported that the material losses of the Palestinian enclave "due to the actions of the Israeli army from the beginning of October to the present time reached the mark of $33 billion." As a result of Israeli shelling in the enclave, about 87,000 housing units have been completely destroyed, the TV channel reported. About three times as many more have been partially destroyed.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, the ongoing Israeli military actions in Gaza since last October has killed 35,800 Palestinians, injured another 80,200. More than 7,000 civilians have gone missing.
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. In late November 2023, a temporary humanitarian ceasefire was brokered by Egypt and Qatar that lasted a week, during which 110 hostages were released, according to Israel. On December 1, the ceasefire was violated and fighting resumed, continuing to this day.