DUBAI, February 18. /TASS/. The Israeli army fired artillery shells at the eastern suburbs of the Palestinian city of Rafah, located in the south of the Gaza Strip, the Lebanese Al Mayadeen TV channel reported.

According to the channel, Israeli forces also shelled the coast of Rafah from the sea.

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 before the crisis, and has been delivering air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes have also been reported on the West Bank.