TEL AVIV, January 22. /TASS/. As many as 12,000 trucks with medical equipment have entered the Gaza Strip since early October 2023, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

"Since the beginning of the war, 12,000 trucks with 1,052 tons of medical equipment have entered Gaza," it said. "In coordination with the international community, the IDF continues to facilitate humanitarian and medical assistance efforts for Gazan civilians."

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 240 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.