MOSCOW, December 5. /TASS/. The Russian Emergencies Ministry has delivered over 288 tons of aid for people in the embattled Gaza Strip since the start of the humanitarian mission, the ministry’s spokesman Roman Okhotenko told journalists on Tuesday.

"Since the start of the humanitarian mission 12 flights of the Russian Emergencies Ministry delivered to the [Egyptian] city of El-Arish over 288 metric tons of food, medicine, clothes, footwear and other necessities," he said.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 200 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly.

Hamas described its attack as a response to Israeli authorities’ aggressive actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.