CAIRO, January 15. /TASS/. The number of journalists killed in the line of duty in the Gaza Strip since the escalation between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement is closing in on 120, the media office in Gaza said.

The number of journalists "killed in the bombardment and shelling of Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces has reached 118," according to a statement issued by the IDF.

On January 14, an Israeli strike led to the death of Yazan Al-Zuweidi, a cameraman for the Egyptian TV channel Al Ghad, who was covering events in the north of the enclave. The channel confirmed the death of its employee.

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.