DUBAI, December 20. /TASS/. More than 50 people were killed in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip, the Qatar-based Al Jazeera television reported citing the Palestinian enclave’s civil defense authority.
Earlier, Gaza Health Ministry reported that 32 people were killed overnight, adding that many victims remain trapped under the rubble of collapsed buildings. According to Al Jazeera’s report, at least 15 displaced Palestinians were killed and over 30 wounded in Israeli strikes on two bomb shelters in Gaza.
The latest Gaza Health Ministry’s statistics shows that approximately 45,100 Palestinians have been killed and over 107,200 wounded in the enclave since the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched its military operation in the enclave in October 2023.
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.