DUBAI, July 22. /TASS/. At least 27 people have been killed as a result of Israeli strikes on separate areas east of the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, Al Jazeera reported, citing medics.

According to the TV channel, Israeli forces also targeted civil defense personnel east of Khan Yunis. There are wounded as a result of the shelling, but the exact number is not given. In addition, the Israeli servicemen launched helicopter attacks on targets in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Earlier, Palestine’s WAFA news agency reported that at least five people were killed in Israeli army strikes on residential buildings in the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian enclave last night.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 240 hostages, including women, children and the elderly. 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 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. Clashes have also been reported on the West Bank.