DUBAI, December 26. /TASS/. At least five Palestinian journalists were killed in Israel’s air strike on central districts of the Gaza Strip, the Qatar-based Al Jazeera television channel has reported.

According to the report, the Israeli military struck a vehicle of the Quds News Network, parked outside the al-Awda hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp. The channel confirmed that five of its staffers were killed as a result.

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.