by Anna Ahronheim, Tzvi Joffre
The IDF struck a rocket production complex belonging to Hamas in the Gaza Strip overnight.
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Smoke and flames are seen after an Israeli air strike in the northern Gaza Strip
(photo credit: REUTERS/MOHAMMED SALEM)
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Palestinian terrorists fired surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) towards
Israel Air Force helicopters during airstrikes against targets in the
Gaza Strip in retaliation for the two rockets that had been fired earlier towards central Israel earlier that morning.
According
to reports in the Hamas-run enclave, operatives fired SA-7 missiles as
well as a number of test rockets towards the sea. Groups in the Strip
have fired SAMs towards Israeli platforms during past operations over
the Gaza Strip, none have caused any damage, including during the
strikes on Saturday evening.
The IDF confirmed to The Jerusalem Post that missiles were fired at the helicopters.
The
Soviet-designed SA-7 is a shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile 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 strikes
targeted a Hamas site located west of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza
Strip, and IDF artillery targeted sites in the northern Gaza Strip as
well.
The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said it had struck a number of targets in Hamas’s rocket production complex.
Two
rockets launched from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip fell in the
Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of central Israel. One landed off the
coast of Tel Aviv and the other off the coast of Palmahim south of
Rishon Lezion early on Saturday morning.
“Earlier
this morning, two rocket launches were identified from the Gaza Strip
toward the Mediterranean. The rockets fell off the coast of the Tel Aviv
metropolitan area. According to protocol, no sirens were sounded and no
interception took place,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a
statement.
The rockets were heard in the cities of Tel Aviv, Holon, Bat Yam and Rishon Lezion.
While
Hamas claimed that the rocket fire on Saturday morning was triggered by
bad weather, the military believes that the rocket fire was carried out
by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Nevertheless,
“the terrorist organization Hamas is responsible for what is happening
in the Gaza Strip and bears the consequences of terrorist acts from the
Gaza Strip,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, at the beginning of the cabinet meeting, said that such excuses would not be accepted by Israel.
“I
want to clarify something here – all of Hamas’s thunder and lightning,
which repeat themselves winter after winter, are no longer relevant,” he
said.”Whoever directs missiles at the State of Israel – bears
responsibility.”
During
a press conference on Sunday evening, Bennett reiterated that "unlike
past governments" his government would not accept the excuse of lighting
or thunder for rocket fire. The prime minister stressed that the
government responded against even a single balloon.
"My
goal concerning Gaza is to keep, on one hand, the peace, and from the
other hand to narrow as much as possible the build-up [of Hamas]," said
Bennett. "In the last decade, even the past 20 years, they allowed in
Lebanon a tiny organization called Hezbollah to turn into a missile
power. I don't intend, under my watch, to allow such a thing and
therefore our approach is much more aggressive than before."
The rocket fire came just days after a civilian working on the Gaza border fence was shot and lightly wounded near the border with the northern Gaza Strip.
Shortly
after the shooting on Wednesday, the IDF responded with artillery fire
towards a number of Hamas posts in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian reports
claimed that at least three Gazan farmers were wounded in the
retaliatory strikes.
The
rocket launches come as the Israeli military said that this had been
the longest period of operational quiet in relation to the four most
recent operations in the coastal enclave.
The
spike in tensions around the Gaza Strip come amid a wave of terror
attacks in the West Bank and Jerusalem, as well as growing tensions in
Israeli prisons.
Additionally,
PIJ has demanded the release of Hisham Abu Hawash, a Palestinian in
administrative detention who has been on hunger strike for over 130
days. Hawash’s detention has reportedly been frozen in recent days,
although he is continuing his hunger strike and is hospitalized.
Anna Ahronheim, Tzvi Joffre
Source: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-690329
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