TEL AVIV, November 1. /TASS/. The Israeli Air Force conducted strikes on about 200 different targets in southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip over the past day, the army press service reported.

It informs that the strikes targeted the facilities of the Lebanese Shiite organization Hezbollah and the radical Palestinian movement Hamas operating in Gaza - command posts, rocket launch sites and other elements of military infrastructure. Notably, a launcher used on October 31 to shell the Bay of Haifa in northern Israel was destroyed in Lebanon.

The situation in the Middle East escalated dramatically when on October 7, 2023 armed Hamas supporters from the Gaza Strip penetrated Israeli territory, killing residents of border settlements and seizing more than 240 hostages.

In retaliation, Israel launched a military operation in the enclave in order to destroy the military and political structures of Hamas and liberate all those hostages. The hostilities in the Gaza Strip continue to this day.

The Hamas attack took place simultaneously with escalation of the situation on the Lebanese-Israeli border, where Hezbollah formations began shelling Israel's border areas, leading to the evacuation of tens of thousands of local residents. Nearly a year later, on September 23, Israel announced a military operation against Hezbollah, with massive airstrikes throughout Lebanon, including Beirut. A limited ground operation in southern Lebanon has also been underway since October 1.