The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has launched its most intense missile attack against the occupying entity since the beginning of the operation al-Aqsa Flood on October 7.

The Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said in a brief statement on Tuesday that their rockets struck the cities of Tel Aviv and Beersheba in central and southern occupied territories in response to the massacre of Palestinian civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

“We bombed the cities of Tel Aviv and Beersheba with bursts of missiles in response to the Zionist massacres against civilians in the Gaza Strip,” the statement said.

The Israeli army radio claimed that five settlers were injured as a result of the Qassam Brigades’ missile strike on Tel Aviv.

Sirens sounded in "Tel Aviv and many surrounding cities and towns to the north and south, including Herzliya and Kfar Shmaryahu,” it added.

The Israeli army also confirmed that “an intense missile attack targeted Tel Aviv and the towns extending to its north, east and south.”

Israel's Channel 12 television said the Tuesday attack by the Qassam Brigades was the “most intense and extensive” rocket strike since Hamas-led resistance groups launched on October 7 Operation al-Aqsa Storm, a surprise attack into the occupied territories in response to the occupying regime’s intensified crimes against the Palestinian people.

Over the past 18 days, the Israeli regime has pressed ahead with a relentless bombardment campaign against the besieged Gaza Strip and claimed thousands of innocent civilian lives.

The Israeli attacks on Gaza have targeted places of gathering, including hospitals, schools, mosques and churches, displacing more than one million in the densely-populated region, which is home to more than 2.3 million people.

The Palestinian Health Ministry announced on Tuesday that the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip has so far reached more than 5,700 people and left over 18,000 others wounded.

More than 700 Palestinians were killed in overnight Israeli airstrikes, the ministry added, the highest 24-hour death toll since Israel began its bombing campaign on Gaza.

The Gaza Strip, which is one of the most densely-populated places in the world, has been deprived of water, food and other basic supplies due to Israel’s total blockade.