CAIRO, November 14. /TASS/. At least 13 people were killed after the Israeli army shelled two residential houses in the town of Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip.

"[A total of] 13 victims were taken to Nasser Hospital as a result of the occupier's shelling of two houses belonging to the al-Agha and Abu Jumayza families in the eastern part of Khan Yunis," the message published on the Telegram channel of the Palestinian Interior Ministry said.

Tensions in the Middle East flared up again on October 7 after militants from the radical Palestinian group Hamas launched 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. Israel announced a total blockade of Gaza and carried out air strikes on targets in the Strip, as well as on certain areas in Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.

On Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant claimed that the Hamas movement had lost control of Gaza. Earlier, the Israeli army reported that, according to its assessment, pro-Hamas factions in the northern part of the Gaza Strip had lost any semblance of an organized structure.