Israel experiences violent weekend of attacks: IAF pounds terror targets
An Israeli man was killed by a rocket launched by Gaza-based terrorists at the centre of the country on Saturday, as Operation Guardian of the Walls continued with full force.
Site of a rocket attack in Israel. (Eitan Elhadaz/TPS)
The man, in his mid-50s, was killed when his house in Ramat Gan was directly hit by a rocket. He is the eighth person to be killed by the terrorists’ attacks on Israel.
Alarms went off on Saturday throughout the coastal area, including in the cities of Ashdod, Netivot, Kiryat Gat, Gan Yavne and many towns in the Gaza Strip area.
Some damage was caused by the attacks, but no significant injuries were reported.
Since the beginning of Operation Guardians of the Walls, the Gazan terrorists have launched over 2,300 rockets from the Gaza Strip at Israeli territory, of which approximately 380 failed launches fell in the Gaza Strip, killing Gazan citizens. The Iron Dome Air Defense System has intercepted approximately 1,000 rockets.
The IDF continued its counterterrorism strikes against Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in the Gaza Strip.
The IAF bombed the home of Hamas deputy leader in the Gaza Strip, Khalil al-Haya. This is the first attack aimed at the home of a senior member of the political leadership and not a military operative.
IAF jets also hit a multi-story building that contained military assets belonging to Hamas’ intelligence offices.
The building contained civilian media offices, which “the Hamas terror organization hides behind and uses as human shields. The Hamas terror organization deliberately places military targets at the heart of densely populated civilian areas in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF stated after the strike.
Prior to the strike, the IDF provided advance warning to civilians in the building and allowed sufficient time for them to evacuate the site.
On Friday night, the IDF struck dozens of terror targets in the Gaza Strip.
IAF fighters and aircraft struck a large number of rocket launch sites and underground rocket launchers, among them a multi-barreled rocket launcher, from which rockets were fired at Jerusalem on the first day of Operation Guardian of the Walls on Monday.
A number of terrorist squads on their way to launch rockets into Israeli territory were also struck, along with a Hamas post which included an Anti-Tank missile launcher in Jabalia.
In addition, the shaft of a Hamas terror tunnel located underneath a hotel beach in the northern Gaza Strip was struck.
“This serves as an additional example as to how the Hamas terror organization deliberately places its military assets and operates in civilian areas,” the IDF noted.
In addition, operational apartments belonging to Hamas naval force operatives were struck, as well as two apartments belonging to Hamas commanders in Sabra Tel al-Hawa and Beit Lahiya. All of the apartments served as terror infrastructure and command and control centers for recent hostilities, the IDF said.
In addition, operational offices belonging to the head of the Hamas Security Forces in Rimal, which served as terror infrastructure were struck, as well as a number of significant weapons storage warehouses belonging to terror organizations in the Gaza Strip. In these warehouses were paragliders intended for aerial infiltration into Israeli territory and Hamas air force equipment was stored.
Meanwhile, there were no contacts for a ceasefire, and no Israeli official has met with Hady Amr, the US representative who came to mediate a ceasefire.
