DUBAI, December 28. /TASS/. Dozens of residents of the Gaza Strip, most of them women and children, have been killed as a result of a series of Israeli airstrikes on the enclave’s settlements, the Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.

The Israeli strikes targeted the Maghazi refugee camp. A civilian car carrying the wounded came under fire near the city of Deir al-Balah. All passengers were killed.

At least seven people were killed in an Israeli raid on the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. Israeli airstrikes again hit Khan Younis in the south of the enclave, causing deaths and injuries.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 when militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli borderline kibbutz settlements and taking over 200 hostages, including women, children and the elderly. 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 declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, and has been delivering air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also underway in the West Bank. As a result of the ongoing Israeli actions in Gaza since October 7, some 21,000 people have been killed and some 54,000 injured.