BEIRUT, January 24. /TASS/. At least nine people were killed and 75 more injured in an Israeli strike on the Khan Younis Training Center of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Director of UNRWA Affairs in Gaza Thomas White said.

"Two tank rounds hit [the] building that shelters 800 people - reports now 9 dead and 75 injured," White wrote on the X social network, adding that an UNRWA and WHO team was trying to reach the training center.

Tensions flared up in the Middle East after Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip attacked Israeli territory on October 7, when many Israelis living in the settlements near the border were killed and over 200 people, including children, women and the elderly, were taken hostage. Hamas views its attack as a response to Israeli authorities’ steps against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.