Israel launches intense airstrikes in Gaza Strip after massive rocket barrage
13 March 2014, 04:35 -- Israel launched intense airstrikes in the Gaza Strip Wednesday after militants there launched the biggest rocket attack on Israel since a November 2012 truce.
An Israeli army spokeswoman in Tel Aviv told dpa as many as 29 targets were hit in rainy weather after dark, the largest number since the eight-day Israeli offensive that ended in the fragile informal truce.
Locals in Gaza said Israel bombed military sites of the Qassam Brigades and of the Quds Brigades, as well as vacant agricultural land. The brigades are the armed wings of the Islamist Hamas movement ruling Gaza, and of the smaller radical Islamic Jihad. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
The airstrikes came after the Islamic Jihad launched a massive barrage of rockets at southern Israel to avenge the killing of three of its fighters in an airstrike the previous day. The three were targeted shortly after they fired a heavy mortar bomb at Israeli troops near the border.
The Islamic Jihad said its armed wing had fired around 130 rockets at Israel in an action it called 'Breaking the Silence.'
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said more than 40 of the rockets landed in Israel and five of them struck populated areas, while three more rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defence system.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier promised a harsh response.
'If there is no quiet in the south, there will be noise in Gaza, to say the least,' Netanyahu said.
Residents in southern Israeli had been instructed to stay close to protected rooms and shelters, he told reporters in Jerusalem. Isael also closed its border crossings with Gaza.
'The IDF will do the work,' he said.
IDF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said the aim of the raids was to target the infrastructure where Gaza's armed groups 'train, plan and implement their hideous attacks.'
Warning sirens earlier rang out across Israeli areas within a 30-kilometre radius from Gaza, giving residents up to 60 seconds to seek shelter.
Hamas evacuated all its outposts and buildings across the Gaza Strip, while residents hurried to stock up on bread and petrol, before the Israeli raids.
Israeli artillery stationed along the border shelled at least two suspected rocket launch sites in Gaza.
The rocket attack is the biggest since Israel and Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian group which runs the Gaza Strip, agreed to a truce in late November 2012.
The ceasefire followed an eight-day Israeli offensive on the coastal enclave that left 180 Palestinians and six Israelis dead. Israel had responded to rocket attacks from Gaza.
Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Ahmed said the group was re-evaluating the ceasefire, which was 'fragile following 1,600 recorded Israeli violations.'
'We believe that this agreement won't last for too long.'
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum in Gaza accused Israel of being 'fully responsible' for the escalation of violence.
Israel said the three militants were killed Tuesday in southern Gaza after they launched a heavy mortar bomb at Israeli troops.
On the same day, at least three militants were killed in an explosion in a three-storey building in northern Gaza. The blast appeared to have been caused during the making of an explosive device, officials said.
Voice of Russia, dpa
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
