 |
| Israel has carried out more air strikes on the Gaza Strip, following dozens of rockets fired by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas. |
At least 15 Palestinians, including two
women and a child, were reportedly hurt in the strikes.
Hamas said it fired rockets to respond
to "Zionist aggression", after accusing Israel of killing five of its
fighters.
Israel denied the claim. It says it has
now begun an open-ended aerial operation to end rocket fire from Gaza.
Israel says the operation will be
expanded in the coming days and that 1,500 reservists have been called up.
A spokesman for the Israel Defense
Forces (IDF) has told the BBC that Israel had the capacity to take its
operation "up a notch" and warned that a ground incursion was
"not off the table".
That represents a significant
strengthening of rhetoric on the Israeli side, says the BBC's Kevin Connolly in
Jerusalem.
The sudden escalation has come just days
after there was talk of a possible truce between Israel and Gaza with each side
suggesting that calm would be answered with calm, our correspondent adds.
Tension has spiked in recent days over
the murders of three young Israelis and a Palestinian teenager.
Lt Col Peter
Lerner: Israel 'no alternative' but airstrikes
Israel says Hamas was behind the
abduction and murder of the Israelis in the occupied West Bank - a claim Hamas
denies.
A day after their funerals, a
16-year-old Palestinian was abducted and murdered in Jerusalem. Police have
arrested six Jewish suspects and say it seems the Palestinian was killed
because of his nationality.
'Tremendous price'
 |
| The Israeli military has sent reinforcements to the frontier with Gaza |
 |
| Several Palestinians were reportedly injured in the new Israeli air strikes |
IDF has commenced Operation Protective
Edge in Gaza against Hamas, in order to stop the terror Israel's citizens
face on a daily basis," an IDF spokesperson said in a
tweet.
It said 50 targets were hit throughout the
night.
Later on Tuesday morning, the IDF said Hamas
had fired at least 16 rockets at Israel, and that its Iron Dome air defence
system had intercepted five of them over Ashdod and Ashkelon.
The military also deployed more troops near
the Gaza border, reports say. However, the Israeli cabinet stopped short of
ordering a ground operation for now.
Towns within 40km (24 miles) of the enclave
were instructed by the central authorities to close schools and summer camps
because of the threat of rocket-fire.
The army said that more rockets were fired
into Israel from Gaza.
Hamas said Israel targeted two houses and four
training facilities used by the militants across Gaza.
Palestinian medics said 15 people were
injured, including two women and a child, in the southern town of Khan Younis.
Hamas militants reportedly warned they would
enlarge the radius of their targets if Israel continued with the air strikes.
A Hamas spokesman had earlier accused Israel
of killing the five militants during Sunday's air strikes and called it a
"grave escalation".
He promised Israel would "pay a
tremendous price".
But Israeli military spokesman Lt Col Peter
Lerner denied the claims, saying the men had died on Sunday in a tunnel that
had been bombarded by Israel on Thursday.
He said the militants went into the tunnel to
assess the damage from the air strike and meddled with some explosives, which
were apparently detonated accidentally.
Israel said Hamas had launched dozens of
rockets on southern and central towns on Monday.
"Seven rockets were intercepted over the
[southern] city of Ashdod and five rockets were intercepted over Netivot,"
an army statement said, according to the AFP news agency.
Rocket alarm sirens were heard in the Hof
Ashkelon and Shaar Hanegev areas.
There were no reports of casualties in Israel.
No comments:
Post a Comment