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Middle East conflict

Number of Palestinians killed in Gaza since October 2023 surpasses 45,800

The local Health Ministry agency also insisted that, over the past 24 hours, 88 Palestinians have died in Israeli strikes on the embattled enclave while 208 have been injured

© AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana

CAIRO, January 5. /TASS/. More than 45,800 Palestinians have died and over 109,000 have sustained wounds due to actions by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the Gaza Strip since the onset of combat in the enclave in October 2023, the local Health Ministry said on its Telegram channel.

"Since October 2023, the number of victims of Israeli troops in Gaza has climbed to 45,805 with 109,064 individuals sustaining wounds," the ministry said. The agency also insisted that, over the past 24 hours, 88 Palestinians have died in Israeli strikes on the embattled enclave while 208 have been injured.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza-based Palestinian radical group Hamas staged a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip, killing residents of border settlements and seizing more than 240 hostages. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel has declared a state of war readiness; announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians; and began delivering air strikes on the enclave and certain parts of Lebanon and Syria, followed by a ground operation in the enclave. Clashes are underway in the West Bank as well.

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