DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Hospitals in the Gaza Strip received the remains of 51 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes in the past 24 hours, the local Health Ministry said Sunday, bringing the Palestinian death toll from the 18-month-old Israel-Hamas war to 52,243.

Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas by launching a surprise bombardment on March 18 and has been carrying out daily waves of strikes. Ground forces have expanded a buffer zone and encircled the southern city of Rafah and now control about 50% of the territory. Israel has also sealed off the territory’s 2 million Palestinians from all imports, including food and medicine, for nearly 60 days.

The overall death toll includes nearly 700 bodies for which the documentation process was recently completed, the ministry said in its latest update. The daily toll includes bodies retrieved from the rubble after earlier strikes. Israeli strikes killed another 17 people after the ministry’s update. Eight of them, including three children and two women, were killed in a strike on a tent in the southern city of Khan Younis.

– The Associated Press