DUBAI, February 21. /TASS/. Dozens of people were killed in Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip on February 20, Palestine’s WAFA news agency reported.

In particular, eight people, including children, were killed after the Israeli military targeted a residential building east of Rafah in southern Gaza. Many others suffered wounds. Another six people lost their lives in an Israeli strike on displaced Palestinians near Khan Yunis.

According to the news agency, dozens of people were killed in the Israeli army’s bombing of residential buildings southeast of Gaza City.

Tensions in the Middle East flared up again on October 7, 2023, after militants from the radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip, killing residents of border communities and taking people hostage. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel announced a total blockade of Gaza and started carrying out retaliatory strikes on targets in the Strip and certain areas of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.