TEL AVIV, October 7. /TASS/. Over the past year, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) registered more than 26,000 projectile, missile and drone launches toward the Jewish state, the Israeli military said.

Of that number, according to the IDF, around 13,200 projectiles were fired from the Gaza Strip and 12,400 from Lebanon. Also, some 400 aerial targets were launched from Iran, 180 from Yemen and 60 from Syria.

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 hostages. 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 siege of the Gaza Strip, and has been delivering air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria. It also launched a ground offensive in the enclave.