TEL AVIV, May 7. /TASS/. Armored vehicles and tanks of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) entered the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip early on Tuesday, The Times of Israel newspaper said.

Earlier, the IDF said it was delivering targeted strikes on Hamas facilities in the eastern part of Rafah. Sounds of gunfire and explosions are heard on footage from the Rafah crossing on the border between Gaza and Egypt, shown by Egyptian TV channels.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 240 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.