CAIRO, September 7. /TASS/. More than 40,900 people have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the Israeli military operation in the Palestinian enclave, the enclave’s Health Ministry reported.

According to the data, from October last year, "40,939 people have been killed, 94,616 have been injured" as a result of attacks by Israeli forces in various areas of the Strip. The ministry added that in just two days of bombing and shelling by the Israeli army in the Strip, "61 Palestinians were killed and 162 Arabs were injured".

The situation in the Middle East has escalated sharply since armed supporters of the radical Palestinian movement Hamas infiltrated Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip on October 7, killing residents of border settlements and taking more than 240 hostages. In response, Israel launched a military operation in the enclave with the aim of destroying the military and political structure of Hamas and freeing all the abductees. Fighting in Gaza continues to this day.