DUBAI, December 13. /TASS/. Around 8,000 people are reported missing in the Gaza Strip following Israeli bombardments, the Al Jazeera television channel reported, citing the enclave’s administration.

According to Gaza’s civil defense service, the overall number of those missing is about 8,000.

It also said that it is receiving a lot of requests for help "due to infections at schools, which are accommodating lost of refugees." "Apart from that, we need rescue vehicles. We have lost most of our fleet in attacks by the occupational [Israeli] forces," the TV channel quoted a service’s representative.

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.