MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/. The Russian Emergencies Ministry is set to deliver another humanitarian aid shipment to the Gaza Strip consisting of 27.5 metric tons of critical items for residents of the embattled enclave, the ministry’s press office told TASS on Wednesday.

"An Il-76 aircraft operated by the Russian Emergencies Ministry departed for the El-Arish Airport [in Egypt]," according to the ministry. "The cargo includes matrasses, blankets, personal hygiene items, and food products, including baby food, with a gross weight of 27.5 tons."

The ministry specified that this latest batch of humanitarian aid was collected at the initiative of the government of the Republic of Ingushetia in Russia’s North Caucasus region.

"The Russian humanitarian aid will be delivered to the Arab Republic of Egypt and will be handed over to representatives of the Egyptian Red Crescent society, who will then transfer it to the Gaza Strip," the ministry’s press service added.

Since the start of the Russian humanitarian mission, the Emergencies Ministry has dispatched 12 flights to deliver aid to the Egyptian city of El-Arish consisting of over 288 metric tons of food, medicine, clothing, footwear and other necessities.

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 into 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 the 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.