TEL AVIV, March 19. /TASS/. As many as 222 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip over the past day, the Israeli Defense Ministry’s unit coordinating government activities in the Palestinian territories (COGAT) said in a statement on Tuesday.

A total of "222 humanitarian aid trucks were inspected and transferred to Gaza on March 18," COGAT said on X (formerly Twitter) social network.

According to the statement, some 66% of the trucks carried food, while the rest were loaded with medicines, water as well as with the equipment for the organization of temporary accommodation places.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023 after militants of the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian movement Hamas launched a surprise incursion into 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 the Israeli authorities’ aggressive actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Israel has declared a complete siege of the Gaza Strip and started a military operation there. Israel is also striking parts of Lebanon and Syria in retaliation for attacks originating from those countries. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.