Israeli warplanes have attacked several Hamas targets in the besieged Gaza Strip, in the most serious escalation since May.
In a statement on Friday, the Israeli military said the attack came in response to a rocket launched from Gaza which hit a Jewish seminary in the town of Sderot.
No casualties were reported on any side.
No, this is not a sunrise nor a sunset. It's a picture of an israeli airstrike on #Gaza earlier today. ??#GazaUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/62TKRX7Jnn
— ?? (@paRh_Le) June 14, 2019
Speaking from the Gaza Strip, Abdellatif al-Qanoo’, a spokesman for Hamas, told Al Jazeera the rocket fire was in response to Israeli aggression.
Al-Qanoo said:
“The occupation [Israel] is bearing the fruit of its own escalation, continuous attacks [on Gaza] and its stalling in implementing agreements between us. Our people will continue to challenge the occupation. We will respond to this behavior [Israeli attacks] by continuing to gather and march.”
#Breaking|| An Israeli airstrike on al-Zaytoun neighborhood east of #Gaza . #GazaUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/jTec0niqad
— Palestinian Voices (@FalastinVoices) June 13, 2019
The latest escalation followed Israel’s closure of offshore waters to Gaza fisherman on Wednesday in what it said was a response to incendiary balloons launched across the frontier that caused fires in fields in southern Israel this week.
In two days of heavy fighting in early May, Israeli raids killed at least 25 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, according to Gaza health authorities.
It was a mere 3 months ago, that the UN investigation found that #ApartheidIsrael comitted WAR CRIMES by deliberately targeting children, women, medics, journalists at the #GreatReturnMarch in Gaza. Has the world held Israel accountable? Hello??? #BDShttps://t.co/BQzcUKdZko
— Paul Dva (@zoolooy) June 13, 2019
A truce mediated by Egypt, Qatar, and the United Nations ended that round of violence.
Some two million Palestinians live in Gaza, whose economy has suffered years of Israeli and Egyptian blockades as well as recent foreign aid cuts and sanctions by the Palestinian Authority, Hamas’s rival in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
(Al Jazeera, PC, Social Media)
