DUBAI, March 3. /TASS/. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out large-scale raids in the Qalqilya, Al-Arroub and Tulkarm refugee camps in the West Bank overnight, Al Jazeera reported.

The TV channel noted that substantial forces had been thrown to storm the city of Tulkarm.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza-based Palestinian radical group Hamas staged a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. 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 has declared a state of war readiness; announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians; and began delivering air strikes on the enclave and certain parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are underway in the West Bank as well.