Adeel Malik
Israeli warplanes carried out the attacks after a rocket was fired from Gaza into Israel, causing no deaths or property damage – and no one claiming it.
People in the Palestinian Gaza Strip said that up to 50 Israeli airstrikes took place in the territory on Sunday night after a rocket was fired earlier in the day from the embattled strip, landing on the border settlement of Sderot in an open area and injuring no one.
The Israeli assault, carried out via air and artillery strikes, demolished multiple sites and injured two, including a 17-year-boy, according to a Palestinian Health Ministry official.
Gazans on social media noted that airstrikes were taking place all over the strip. The Israeli military earlier confirmed it had struck two camps for the Hamas movement, which controls the strip.
Observers said the intensity of Sunday’s attacks are part of the strategy of new Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who was appointed in May.
Earlier in the day, Israeli forces said aircraft and tanks had targeted two Hamas posts. Hamas controls the Gaza Strip and has observed a de facto ceasefire with Israel since a 2014 war, yet the group has accused the current Israeli administration of ratcheting up tensions.
Small armed cells – some of which have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group – have defied the ceasefire agreement and occasionally launch rockets at Israel, incurring the wrath of the Israeli armed forces.
More than 2,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed during the 2014 Israeli attack on Gaza, while 67 Israeli soldiers and six Israeli civilians were killed by rockets and guerrilla attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian nationalist groups.
Source: TeleSur
