A man grieves during the mourning of victims at a hospital in central Gaza Strip city of Deir el-Balah, on Dec 23, 2023. The death toll of Palestinians from Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip has so far risen to 20,258 since Oct 7, with 53,688 others being injured, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said in a statement on Saturday. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

GAZA / TEHRAN - The death toll of Palestinians from Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip has so far risen to 20,258 since Oct 7, with 53,688 others being injured, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

It added that at least 201 Palestinians were killed and 368 injured in Israeli attacks in the past 24 hours.

Medical and security sources told Xinhua that at least 18 people were killed, and several others wounded on Saturday following an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza's al-Bureij refugee camp

Medical and security sources told Xinhua that at least 18 people were killed, and several others wounded on Saturday following an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza's al-Bureij refugee camp.

Meanwhile, another Israeli airstrike targeting the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries, the sources added.

Israel has been launching a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct 7, during which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage.

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Also on Saturday, Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said Saturday that it has lost contact with a group holding five Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip, fearing some of the hostages may have been killed in an Israeli airstrike.

The spokesman for the Brigades Abu Ubaida said in a statement that the Brigades had lost contact with the group "during an Israeli raid."

He reported the names of three out of the five hostages, indicating that the Qassam Brigades suspect their deaths in one of the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, while did not give further details to the other two hostages.

A man grieves during the mourning of victims at a hospital in central Gaza Strip city of Deir el-Balah, on Dec 23, 2023. The death toll of Palestinians from Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip has so far risen to 20,258 since Oct 7, with 53,688 others being injured, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said in a statement on Saturday. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

The Israeli military did not immediately comment.

The hostages are among an estimated 129 Israelis and foreigners who have been held by Hamas since it launched a surprise raid into southern Israel on Oct 7. Hamas has demanded the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the hostages.

During a weeklong humanitarian truce that ended Nov 30, Hamas freed 86 Israeli captives, including women and children, as well as 24 foreigners.

In Tehran, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman on Saturday described the recent resolution adopted by the UN Security Council (UNSC) demanding immediate and unhindered humanitarian access throughout the Gaza Strip as "positive but insufficient."

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In a statement published on the ministry's website, Nasser Kanaani said it was regrettable that while the Israeli attacks against the "defenseless people in Gaza" persist, the US government was still hindering the adoption of a binding resolution at the UNSC to end the "killing" in the coastal enclave, referring to the veto and abstention from the United States in related voting.

He added that under the continued Israeli bombardments and military attacks, sending "effective" humanitarian aid to Gaza "is practically not possible," stressing that the resolution's adoption did not reduce the UNSC's responsibilities toward Gaza.

Children check building ruins after an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, on Dec 23, 2023. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

The 15-member Security Council passed on Friday the resolution with 13 votes in favor, no votes against, and two abstentions from the US and Russia. The vote followed a US veto of a Russian amendment that would have restored the call for a "suspension of hostilities."