CAIRO, October 24. /TASS/. The radical Palestinian movement Hamas has insisted that it has 35,000 armed supporters in the Gaza Strip, the Al Hadath TV channel reported.

"We have 35,000 [armed] supporters amassed in Gaza and we are ready [for further resistance]," the TV channel quoted a spokesman for the Palestinian organization as saying.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 when militants from the Gaza-based Palestinian radical group Hamas staged a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel has announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians; and began delivering air strikes on the enclave and certain parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are underway in the West Bank as well.