Israel strikes targets in Gaza following rocket fire

The Israeli Air Force struck targets in the Gaza Strip overnight on Tuesday in response to earlier rocket fire launched towards southern Israel.

“Fighter planes attacked a number of targets and destroyed a Hamas weapons production facility,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement. “Israel regards Hamas as responsible for all events in and from the Strip.”

Hamas spokesperson Hazim Qassem said that there were no injuries in the strikes that targeted a site west of Khan Younis and claimed anti-aircraft fire was launched at the planes. According to reports, a Russian-made Strela (SA-7) shoulder-to-air missile was fired at Israeli jets.

“The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades announced that its air defenses responded to the hostile Israeli warplanes at 1:35 a.m., in the skies of the Gaza Strip with surface-to-air missiles,” SAFA news agency reported.

The IDF confirmed to The Jerusalem Post that a missile had been fired at the jets.

AN IRON DOME anti-missile battery seen in the center of the country. (credit: FLASH90)“The attempt to hit the planes failed, there were no casualties and no damage was done to the aircraft,” the military said.

Terror groups in the Strip have fired surface-to-air missiles toward Israeli platforms during past operations over the Gaza Strip, none have caused any damage, including during the strikes on Tuesday morning.

In January, when the IAF was carrying out airstrikes in response to rockets fired toward Tel Aviv, Hamas used the SA-7 against Israeli jets.

The Soviet-designed SA-7 is a shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile (SAMs) that was designed to target aircraft flying at low altitudes. First used in combat by Egyptian troops during the War of Attrition with Israel in 1969, the system likely entered the Gaza Strip via smuggling routes from the Sinai Peninsula following the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya in 2011.

The retaliatory airstrikes came in response to a rocket that was fired on Monday evening toward the southern Israeli communities of Kissufim and Ein Hashlosha, for the first time in four months.

The rocket fire comes as tensions mount surrounding the Temple Mount as dozens of Palestinians have been injured and hundreds arrested following violent clashes with Israel Police.

The “Zionist bombing of empty sites is a failed attempt to prevent our Palestinians people from defending the city of Jerusalem,” Qassem said.

Meanwhile, in the West Bank, the IDF continued to carry out arrest raids, taking into custody five wanted Palestinians. Israel Police also announced that the detention of 20 suspects who were arrested during riots in Jerusalem’s Old City and Temple Mount will be extended. The suspects were arrested for rioting, assault and hurling rocks and fireworks toward security forces and civilians over the past week.

Israeli officials understand that Hamas is not interested in any conflict and the rocket on Monday evening is believed to have been fired by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Nevertheless, the major concern of the defense establishment is that the violence in Jerusalem might spiral and lead to more rocket fire -therefore dragging the country into yet another war.

Last year violence on the Temple Mount coupled with the cancellation of Palestinian elections led to Hamas firing seven rockets toward Jerusalem leading to 11 days of deadly conflict called Operation Guardian of the Walls by the IDF and Sword of Jerusalem by Hamas.