CAIRO, November 8. /TASS/. More than 43,500 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 102,700 have suffered injuries in Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, the enclave’s Health Ministry said in a statement.

"The number of victims of Israel’s aggression against Gaza has reached 43,508 since October 2023, and another 102,684 people have been injured," the statement reads. Gaza’s Health Ministry noted that "Israeli bombardments and shelling attacks killed 39 Palestinians and left another 123 injured in Gaza in the past day."

Earlier on Friday, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) issued a report saying that nearly 70% of those killed in Gaza were women and children. The OHCHR added that it had been able to verify the death of only 8,119 people killed in Gaza between November 2023 and April 2024.

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. In response, Israel launched a military operation in the Palestinian enclave to destroy Hamas military and political wings and free all hostages. Hostilities in Gaza continue to this day.