TEL AVIV, October 31. /TASS/. Israel’s security services are checking all humanitarian aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip and they will be blocked if these cargos end up in the hands of the radical Palestinian group Hamas, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

"These are food and medicines that have been physically checked and inspected by Israeli security personnel and are delivered via Egypt. The shipments are designed for the civilian population; should it become clear that they have been taken by Hamas, they will be halted," it said in a statement.

The office noted that "the humanitarian assistance provides Israel with important leeway in which to act to realize the goals of the war." "The humanitarian assistance is not from Israel but from international sources," it stressed.

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.