TEL AVIV, July 9. /TASS/. An Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) fighter intercepted an air target approaching Israel's southern border, the army press service reported.

"Some time ago, an IDF fighter jet successfully intercepted a suspicious air target that was approaching southern Israel from the east," the report said.

The army press service clarified that the object did not cross the border with Israel, so there was no air raid alert.

The situation in the Middle East sharply escalated following an incursion of Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip into Israel on October 7, accompanied by killings of residents of Israeli settlements near the border and taking more than 240 hostages, including children, women and elderly people. Hamas cast the attack as a response to Israeli actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Israel declared a complete siege of the Gaza Strip and started striking the enclave and parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.