DUBAI, December 29. /TASS/. At least 39 Palestinians were killed on Saturday as a result of the Israeli army's attacks on the Gaza Strip, Qatar’s Al Jazeera reported.
According to the TV channel, mainly the northern part of the Palestinian enclave was subjected to Israeli shelling and bombardment, which resulted in the deaths of 27 people.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, nearly 45,500 Palestinians have been killed and more than 108,000 injured since tensions escalated in the Middle East.
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.