DUBAI, December 25. /TASS/. At least 21 people were killed and 51 wounded as a result of Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, the Qatar-based Al Jazeera television reported citing the health ministry of the Gaza Strip.

The death toll includes six people, who were killed in an Israeli strike on a residential house in the northern city of Jabalia. Besides, the Israeli artillery shelled the Al-Awda hospital in the besieged Jabalia refugee camp. At least seven Palestinians, including three children, were wounded in an Israeli drone attack on a tent with displaced persons in the southern city of Khan Yunis.

On top of that, eight people were killed in Israel’s raid on the West Bank city of Tulkarm.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when Hamas militants staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 250 hostages, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as retaliation for the aggressive actions taken by 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, launching air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria before starting a ground operation in the Palestinian enclave.