DUBAI, December 26. /TASS/. Several civilians were killed and some others sustained wounds in Israel’s new airstrikes on the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestine’s WAFA news agency said.

Israeli warplanes also bombed the area around Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continues artillery attacks, targeting the city’s central districts, the news agency reported.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 when militants from the Gaza-based Palestinian radical group Hamas staged 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. In response, Israel has declared a state of war readiness; announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians; and began delivering air strikes on the enclave and certain parts of Lebanon and Syria.