DUBAI, January 13. /TASS/. At least 10 civilians, including children, were killed and others wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a house with Palestinian refugees near the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

According to the agency, Israeli warplanes also carried out several raids in the area of the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, and the artillery of the occupying forces shelled the refugee camps of Al-Bureij, Al-Maghazi, the city of Zuwayda in the center of the enclave and the area Zeitoun in Gaza City.

Since the beginning of the Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip, more than 23,700 Palestinians have been killed, and more than 60,000 have been injured, the agency says.

The situation in the Middle East sharply escalated following an incursion of Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip into Israel on October 7, 2023. Hamas cast the attack as a response to Israeli actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Israel has declared a complete siege of the Gaza Strip and started a military operation there. Israel also strikes parts of Lebanon and Syria in retaliation for bombardments originating from these countries. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.