More than 2000 Rockets Fired into Israel by Hamas
The fighter jets of Israeli Defense Forces razed on Saturday afternoon a high-rise building in the Gaza Strip hosting the Hamas military intelligence units.
According to reports by 24news and many other sources, the Jala Tower complex in the Gaza Strip is also where the Gaza offices of several international news media outlets are based, including the Associated Press and al-Jazeera.
Reports suggested that the tower’s owner had received a warning from the IDF ahead of the airstrikes, allowing the civilians inside to evacuate.
The Israeli military accused the terrorist groups of using the journalists working in the building as human shields.
“The terrorist organization Hamas deliberately places its military assets in the heart of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip,” the army said.
In a statement issued shortly after the attack, Hamas threatened another major rocket salvo into central Israel in retaliation for the strike.
Red alert sirens went off earlier in the day in the area, with one Israeli killed in the Saturday afternoon barrage fired into the area.
According to reports by World Israel News and AP, turmoil from the battle between Israel and Hamas spilled over into Judea and Samaria on Friday, sparking the most widespread Palestinian rioting in years as hundreds of young Arabs in multiple towns clashed with Israeli troops.
On the outskirts of Ramallah, Nablus and other towns and cities, Arab rioters waved Palestinian flags and trucked in tires to burn in order to create smoke screens from which they could attack Israelis.
At least 10 violent rioters were killed by IDF soldiers. An 11th Palestinian was killed when he tried to stab a soldier at a military position.
Hamas has fired some 2,000 rockets toward Israel since Monday, according to the Israeli military.
Most have been intercepted by anti-missile defenses, but they have brought life to a standstill in southern Israeli cities, caused disruptions at airports and have set off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Palestinian rocket attacks have killed nine Israelis, including a 5-year-old boy.
On Israel’s northern border, a group of Lebanese and Palestinian rioters on the other side cut through the border fence and briefly crossed. One Lebanese was killed. Three rockets were fired toward Israel from neighboring Syria, but they either landed in Syrian territory or in empty areas, Israeli media said. It was not immediately known who fired them.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Hamas would “pay a very heavy price” for its rocket attacks. Israel called up 9,000 reservists Thursday to join its troops massed at the Gaza border.
On Friday, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Israel-Palestinian affairs, Hady Amr, arrived in Israel as part of an attempt by Washington to de-escalate the conflict.
U.S. President Joe Biden gave a show of support to Netanyahu in a call a day earlier, saying “there has not been a significant overreaction” in Israel’s response to Hamas rockets. He said the aim is to get a “significant reduction in attacks, particularly rocket attacks.”
On Saturday, an Israeli man a was killed by a Palestinian rocket that hit a residential building in Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv.
That strike was the latest attack in an onslaught of Palestinian rockets that began on Tuesday, which as claimed the lives of nine Israelis to date.
The Gaza rocket attacks were accompanied by an outburst of Palestinian violence started in Jerusalem that has spread into mixed Jewish-Arab cities in Israel.
Arabs have launched pogrom-like violent riots, viciously attacking Israelis, torching synagogues, destroying ritual, and damaging property.
There were also widespread violent Palestinian riots on Friday in Judea and Samaria.
The spiraling violence has raised fears of a new Palestinian “intifada,” an Arabic term that is used as a euphemism for a wave of premeditated violent terror attacks on Israeli civilians.
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that he spoke with U.S. President Joe Biden.
Netanyahu thanked him for the “unreserved support of the United States for our right to defend ourselves.”
A furious Israeli barrage early Friday destroyed a vast tunnel network used by the Hamas terror group.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said the military aims to minimize collateral damage in striking military targets.
Israeli media said the military believed dozens of militants were killed inside the tunnels. The Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups have confirmed 20 deaths in their ranks, but the military said the real number is far higher.
Also, an Israeli airstrike on Saturday targeted the home of Khalil al-Hayeh, a top leader of Gaza’s ruling Hamas terror group.
Al-Hayeh’s home served as part of the Islamist group’s “terrorist infrastructure,” said the IDF.
Al-Hayeh is a senior Hamas figure in Gaza, and the attack signaled that Israel will continue to go after Hamas’ top leadership.
His fate after the strike was not immediately known.
No comments