Gaza terror groups fired a salvo of rockets at southern Israel after midnight on Thursday, less than an hour after the IDF finished an air offensive in the Hamas-ruled enclave in response to an earlier rocket attack.
The Israeli military said the Iron Dome missile defense system managed to intercept all four rockets that were fired from Gaza shortly after 2:00 a.m.
Less than an hour earlier, the IDF finished carrying out airstrikes in Gaza in response to an earlier rocket that was fired on Wednesday evening, which landed near a home in the southern city of Sderot and had been the second rocket attack in roughly 48 hours.
The army said its jets targeted a military post in central Gaza as well as the opening of what it called a terror tunnel that leads to an underground site where rocket engines are produced. The military did not state which terror group had been using the tunnel but insisted that the strike marked a significant to the rocket production process in Gaza.
“The Hamas terror organization is responsible for what takes place in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said in a statement, sticking to its long-held position that since the group rules Gaza, it is responsible for any rockets fired from the territory, regardless of whether its own fighters were behind the launches or not.
The Wednesday night rocket attack was the second since Monday after almost four months period of quiet on the Gaza border. It came at the tail-end of a tension-filled day in Jerusalem, where Israeli nationalists were prevented by police from marching through the Old City’s Damascus Gate, a popular gathering point for Palestinians. Hamas, the terror group that rules the Gaza Strip, had threatened to attack if the march went ahead.
Palestinian media reports said a site in central Gaza operated by Palestinian factions was struck multiple times in the Wednesday air raid. Footage showed smoke rising from the site following a series of strikes.
There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces on the attack. The military generally issues a statement once it has concluded a series of airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qasim said after Thursday’s IDF counterstrike that “the bombing of Gaza will increase the persistence of our people and its resistance to continue the struggle and escalate support and aid for our people in Jerusalem.”
There was no immediate claim by any of the Gaza-based terror groups for the rocket fire on Wednesday and on Monday, though Monday’s attack was blamed on the Palestinian Islamic Jihad by several media reports. According to the Kan public broadcaster, the Israeli security establishment believes the earlier rocket was launched by radicals within Islamic Jihad who were acting alone and that Hamas is unable to clamp down on such rogue actors even when it wants to.
Following Monday’s rocket, the IDF said that it bombed a number of targets, including a site used by Hamas to manufacture weapons in the Gaza Strip.
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