CAIRO, January 17. /TASS/. Nearly 46,900 Palestinians have been killed in the blockaded Gaza Strip due to Israeli attacks since the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict began in early October 2023, the Health Ministry of the Palestinian enclave reported on Friday.
"The death toll from Israel’s strikes on the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the current escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in early October 2023 has risen to 46,876, with 110,642 people injured," Gaza’s Health Ministry said on its Telegram channel. As many as 88 Palestinians were killed and 189 others were injured in the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, the agency added.
Tensions escalated again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel’s territory, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 250 hostages, including women, children, and the elderly. In response, Israel initiated a military operation in Gaza with the objective of destroying the military and political structure of Hamas and rescuing all those abducted. Military actions in the Gaza Strip continue to this day.
On January 15, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar's head of government and foreign minister, announced that Israel and Hamas, with successful mediation by Doha, Cairo, and Washington, had reached a deal to release hostages from Gaza and establish a ceasefire in the region. He stated that the agreement would take effect on January 19 and would be implemented in three phases.