Terrorist groups from Gaza mar peace signing by firing thirteen rockets at Israel
Terrorist factions in the Gaza Strip made their displeasure with the historic peace deals signed Tuesday between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain very clear as the documents were being inked in Washington, firing the first two of some 13 rockets toward Israel shortly before 8 p.m.
One rocket landed near a shopping center in Ashdod, wounding two residents. A man in his 60s sustained moderate to serious wounds to his upper body from shrapnel and a man in his 20s was lightly wounded in his legs, apparently by flying glass.
Another four people had to be treated for shock, and the explosion caused heavy damage.
The Iron Dome defense system intercepted another rocket fired toward Ashkelon.
Overnight Tuesday, Gaza-based terrorists fired 11 more rockets at Sderot and other parts of the western Negev. There were no reports of Israeli wounded in the latest barrage. IDF aircraft carried out retaliatory strikes against some 10 Hamas targets in Gaza, including some of the group’s underground infrastructure and sites used to manufacture weapons and explosives, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit reported.
“The strikes were carried out in response to rocket attacks from Gaza against Israeli territory,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad issued a statement in response to the IDF airstrikes in which it said that “In response to the bombing of ‘resistance’ sites and based on the formula that a bombing will be answered by a bombing, the resistance has fired rockets at outposts and communities in the western Negev.”
The rocket attacks came barely two weeks after Hamas announced that it had reached an agreement through international mediators to end the latest round of cross-border violence with Israel.
Under the deal, Hamas halted launches of explosives-laden balloons and rocket fire into Israel, while Israel said it will ease restrictions that have been tightened in recent weeks.
As a result of indirect mediation efforts led by Egypt, the United Nations and Qatar, Hamas said “several projects will be announced to serve our people in Gaza Strip and contribute in mitigating” difficult living conditions.
Its statement didn’t detail any of the projects but it said conditions would return to “what they were before the escalation.”
Ceasefire notwithstanding, Hamas and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party struck a deal last week for “joint resistance” against Israel.
Source: Israel Hayom
