GAZA CITY, Palestine

Death toll from Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip has reached 22,185, the Health Ministry in the besieged enclave said on Tuesday.

The ministry in a statement said the number of injured people had risen to 57,035, with nearly 70% of them being women and children.

The Israeli forces have "committed in the past 24 hours nearly 15 massacres against Palestinian families across the Gaza Strip, leaving 207 Palestinians killed and 338 others injured," the press release added.

Israel launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7. The attacks have left the territory in ruins, with 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure damaged or destroyed and nearly 2 million residents displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.

Authorities claim the Hamas attacks have killed around 1,200 Israelis.

Disease is spreading among the overcrowded shelters and packed streets of the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, one of the most crowded places on the planet, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar