CAIRO, October 19. /TASS/. Around 20 Palestinians were killed over the past day as a result of Israeli bombing and shelling of various areas of the blockaded Gaza Strip, the enclave's Health Ministry said.

According to the ministry, "over the past 24 hours, 19 people were killed and 91 Palestinians were wounded in Israeli army attacks in the Strip". According to the ministry, "the total number of victims of [Israeli] aggression since the beginning of the military operation in the Strip has reached 42,519. During the same period, 99,637 Arabs were wounded.

The situation in the Middle East sharply escalated on October 7, 2023, when the Palestinian Hamas militants infiltrated the Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking hostages. Hamas described its attack as retaliation for the aggressive actions taken by Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. In response, Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and started launching airstrikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria before starting a ground operation in the Palestinian enclave. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.