DUBAI, August 20. /TASS/. At least nine Palestinians have been killed and five others injured as a result of Israeli army strikes on the Gaza Strip, Qatar's Al Jazeera reported.

According to the TV channel, at least five people were killed when the Israeli military blew up an apartment building in a refugee camp in the central part of the Gaza Strip.

In addition, four people died after Israeli servicemen opened fire on a civilian vehicle in Rafah, in the southern Palestinian enclave near the border with Egypt. Another five were wounded in Khan Yunis, also in the south.

At least 35 Palestinians were killed in Gaza overnight, according to Al Jazeera. The total death toll since the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict approached 40,140, with some 93,000 people injured.

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.