Israel strikes Gaza after overnight rocket fire
Israel struck two Hamas sites in the Gaza Strip early in Wednesday morning in retaliation for overnight rocket fire.
Israel’s Iron Dome system intercepts rockets the Gaza Strip, as seen from Ashkelon, on May 13, 2023. Photo by Yossi Aloni/Flash90.
Iron Dome interceptors shot down five rockets launched at Israel on Tuesday night. One house in Sderot was damaged by falling shrapnel.
In retaliation, Israeli aircraft struck “an underground weapons workshop used by the chemical unit of the Hamas terror group and a site for processing rocket components,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.
No terror group claimed responsibility for the rocket fire. Israel holds Hamas responsible for all attacks coming from the Strip. The launches were the first since May 14 as a five-day conflict with Palestinian Islamic Jihad came to an end.
The rockets came as Israeli soldiers began withdrawing from the Jenin refugee camp after a two-day operation to dismantle terror infrastructure. Forces discovered several bomb-making laboratories, a homemade rocket launcher, explosives in the UN-administered camp.
During that incursion, the IDF raised its level of alert along the Gaza border. Palestinian sources told the Tazpit Press Service on Monday that Hamas deployed its forces along the Gaza border to prevent disturbances and also thwarted at least two attempts to fire rockets.
