CAIRO, September 18. /TASS/. At least 20 Palestinians died and another 54 were injured as a result of Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, the enclave's Health Ministry reported.

Thus, "since October 2023, 41,272 people have died and 95,551 people have been injured," the ministry said. According to its information, many people remain under the rubble as ambulances cannot reach them.

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.