A man carries a body of a victim after an Israeli strike in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on Dec. 4, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

The Palestinian death toll has risen to 15,899 as a result of the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, the Hamas-run health ministry said Monday.

Ashraf al-Qedra, the spokesman of the ministry, said during a press conference in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, that the number of injured people rose to more than 42,000, while 70 percent of the victims were children and women.

Al-Qedra accused Israel of escalating its targeting of hospitals and health facilities, noting that it destroyed 56 health institutions, arrested 35 medical personnel, and rendered the health system in the Gaza Strip completely incapacitated.

Al-Qedra called on the United Nations and the World Health Organization to protect hospitals and health and humanitarian teams and to provide safe passage for the entry of medical supplies and fuel and the exit of the wounded.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), meanwhile, said Hamas had deliberately embedded itself among civilians so that Gazans would bear the consequences of "Hamas atrocities."

"Our war is against Hamas, not the people of Gaza. We are taking extensive measures to mitigate harm to the civilians that Hamas uses as shields," the IDF said in an X post on its official account Monday evening.

Since Oct. 7, Israel has been waging a large-scale war against Hamas after the latter launched an unprecedented attack on the Israeli towns.

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