CAIRO, October 31. /TASS/. Around 1.4 million Palestinians have been forced to move from the northern part of the Gaza Strip to its south amid Israeli strikes, Palestine’s Permanent Representative to the Arab League Muhannad Al-Aklouk said on Tuesday.
"Some 1.4 million Palestinians have moved from the northern part of the Gaza Strip to the south of the enclave," the Al-Qahera al-Ihbariya television channel quoted him as saying. He stressed that more and more Palestinians are dying every day as a result of Israel’s aggression.
"The Gaza Strip has turned into a mass burial ground," he said, adding that Israeli strikes have wiped out "entire neighborhoods" in the enclave’s settlements.
Tensions flared up in the Middle East after Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip attacked Israeli territory, killing many Israelis living in the settlements near the border and abducting more than 200 people, including children, women and the elderly. Hamas views its attack as a response to Israeli authorities’ steps against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.