CAIRO, December 3. /TASS/. At least 37 people have been killed in an Israeli strike on the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, the Al Mayadeen television channel reported.
According to the Al Hadath television channel, fierce fighting between Israeli forces and militants of Palestinian armed groups is reported east of Khan Yunis.
Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, claims that it is targeting Israeli vehicles north of Khan Yunis. Thus, they claim to have hit an Israeli bulldozer, a tank and an armored vehicle.
Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 200 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to Israeli authorities’ aggressive actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.
On November 22, Hamas announced an agreement with Israel, which was brokered by Egypt and Qatar, on a four-day humanitarian truce in the Gaza Strip, which took effect on November 24. However, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on the morning of December 1 that Hamas had violated the truce in Gaza and opened fire on Israeli territory, thus prompting the IDF to resume combat operations in the Gaza Strip.