DUBAI, October 10. /TASS/. At least 64 Palestinians have been killed over the past 24 hours in Israeli army strikes on the Gaza Strip, the Al Jazeera television channel reported.

The report stated that the majority of casualties occurred in the northern part of the Palestinian enclave, where a six-day siege forced the United Nations to close schools that had been converted into shelters, as well as hospitals. The channel further reported that, since October 7, 2023, Israeli military actions against Palestine have resulted in the deaths of 42,010 people, with 97,720 others wounded.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 250 hostages, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as retaliation for the aggressive actions taken by 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, launching air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria before starting a ground operation in the Palestinian enclave.