DUBAI, April 8. /TASS/. The number of fatalities in the Gaza Strip due to operations by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has increased by 59 as of Monday morning, Al Jazeera reported, citing Palestinian medical sources.

Earlier, the enclave’s Health Ministry said that 1,391 individuals have been killed since March 18 with 3,434 sustaining wounds. The ministry also added that the total death toll since October 2023 has climbed to 50,752 with 115,475 individuals injured.

According to Arab TV channels, the IDF continues to carry out intensive air strikes and artillery shelling attacks on all parts of the embattled enclave.

Earlier, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and King of Jordan Abdullah II during a meeting in Cairo held a phone conversation with US President Donald Trump, discussing ways to guarantee an urgent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Tensions erupted again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza-based Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip, killing residents of border settlements and seizing 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 initiated a military operation in the enclave in order to dismantle Hamas’ military and political structure and rescue all those kidnapped, and began delivering air strikes on certain parts of Lebanon and Syria.

On March 18, the Israeli army resumed fighting in the Gaza Strip, launching massive strikes on the enclave and thus breaking the ceasefire established in January. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that Israel had restarted military operations in Gaza after Hamas rejected the US proposals put forward by mediators and US Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff. The office stated that the Israeli military had resumed strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza to secure the release of hostages and that the army would escalate its campaign in the enclave. The Gaza-based movement has blamed the United States for the renewal of Israeli aggression.