TEL AVIV, October 26. /TASS/. A recently confirmed number of hostages held captive in the Gaza Strip stands at 224, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Thursday.

Speaking at a news briefing earlier in the day, Hagari said "224 families of abducted people received notifications" that their relatives were held captive in the Palestinian enclave.

According to him, the updated data regarding missing and abducted persons is delivered in the first place to their families and only after that is made public.

The IDF reported earlier in the week that the number of hostages in the Gaza Strip stood at 222.

Russian Ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov stated earlier in the day that three people holding Russian and Israeli citizenship might have been abducted by the Palestinian radical movement Hamas.

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 has begun delivering air strikes on the enclave and certain parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are underway in the West Bank as well.