Israel strikes Hamas targets after Gaza rocket fire
Israel launched retaliatory air strikes on Gaza on Thursday morning after terror groups fired rockets.
Smoke trails mark the path of Palestinian missiles fired from the north-east of Gaza City towards Israel on February 23, 2023. Photo by Majdi Fathi/TPS
Six rockets apparently fired by Palestinian Islamic Jihad triggered alarms in the cities of Ashkelon and Sderot around 4:00 AM. Five were intercepted by the Iron Dome system, while the sixth landed in an open area, causing no damage.
No terror group claimed responsibility for the rocket fire, but the attack is widely believed to have been carried out by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Israel holds Hamas responsible for all rocket fire coming from the Strip.
A spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces said retaliatory air strikes targeted a Hamas weapons production facility and a compound where the terror group stored naval weapons. The IDF released aerial photos showing the weapons storage site located between a school, a health clinic, a hotel and a mosque in northern Gaza.
“This is further proof that the Hamas terror organisation places its military assets in the heart of a civilian population,” the military said in a statement on Thursday morning.
The rocket fire came one day after heavy violence in Shechem (Nablus). Eleven Palestinians, mostly members of terror groups, were killed in heavy clashes in Shechem when Israeli security forces entered the city to arrest two Palestinians connected to the murder of a soldier last year.
Staff-Sgt. Ido Baruch was killed in a drive-by shooting in northern Samaria in October.
Residents of the city were called to join the fighting in social media messages and announcements from local mosques. Footage posted on social media included the sounds of explosions and gunfire.
According to the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry, more than 100 Palestinians were injured. The PA did not specify how many of the injured had participated in the violence.
The fugitives, Husam Isleem and Muhammed al-Junaidi barricaded themselves inside a house and were killed in a shootout. Isleem and Junaidi were members of Lion’s Den and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), respectively. After the firefight, soldiers found a weapons cache inside the home.
Other Palestinians who Israeli security forces identified as killed included Muhammad Abu Bakr, a leader of the PIJ-aligned al-Quds Brigades, Musab Awais, a leader of another terror group known as the Balata Brigade, Muhammad a-Fatah of PIJ and Walid Dahil of the Lions Den.
