DUBAI, May 19. /TASS/. The number of victims of an Israeli strike on a house north of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip has risen to 20, the Qatari TV channel Al Jazeera reported. Previously, 17 deaths were reported.

A strike on a residential area east of Gaza killed nine people. Israeli artillery also shells several areas in the east and center of the city of Rafah in the south of the Palestinian enclave.

The situation in the Middle East escalated sharply on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza-based Hamas radical Palestinian movement staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 240 hostages, including women, children and seniors. 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. After that it launched a ground operation in the enclave.