CAIRO, September 8. /TASS/. The number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israeli military actions since the start of the operation in the enclave in October 2023 is approaching 41,000, the enclave's Health Ministry said.

"The number of those killed as a result of Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip since October 2023 has increased to 40,972, with another 94,761 wounded," the ministry said in a statement on its Telegram channel. According to it, only "in the past 24 hours, as a result of Israeli shelling in various areas of the Gaza Strip, 33 Palestinians were killed and 145 were injured."

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.