RABAT, January 7. /TASS/. At least 17 people, including 12 children, were killed and dozens wounded as a result of the Israeli military airstrike on a refugee camp in Khan Yunis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera television reported.

According to Al Jazeera, "Israeli aircraft bombed a house with a large number of displaced Palestinians."

The agency also reported that at least four people were killed after "a school run by the UN’s Palestinian relief agency in al-Magazhi was also hit by an Israeli attack."

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023 after militants of the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian movement 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 has declared a complete siege of the Gaza Strip and started a military operation there. Israel is also striking parts of Lebanon and Syria in retaliation for attacks originating from those countries. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.