DUBAI, January 26. /TASS/. At least 20 people were killed and around 150 injured when the Israeli forces shelled a queue of civilians who lined up to receive food aid in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, Qatar-based Al Jazeera TV reported.

Survivors were rushed to the Al Shifa hospital for treatment. According to video footage from the facility, many of the injured were accommodated in corridors due to lack of beds.

"We were planning to get some flour and were waiting for trucks to arrive. [Israeli tanks] fired four shells at us," the channel quoted a survivor as saying.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 240 hostages, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, and has been delivering air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also underway in the West Bank.