The number of people killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of Israel’s bombardment has risen to 27,131, the Hamas-controlled health authority said on Friday.

The majority of the dead were women, children or young people, a statement added, while 66,287 Palestinians have been injured.

In the past 24 hours alone, 112 Palestinians have been killed and 148 injured, the statement said.

The figures cannot be independently verified but the UN and other observers point out that the authority’s figures have proven to be generally credible in the past.

The Gaza war was triggered by the worst massacre in Israel’s history when terrorists from the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and other extremist militants from Gaza killed over 1,200 people inside the Jewish state on October 7.