The Israeli army carried out air strikes on the Gaza Strip on Thursday evening, after Israel, targeted by more than thirty rockets fired from Lebanon, promised a military response to this attack for which it blames Palestinian groups.
At least three explosions were heard by AFP journalists in Gaza around 11:15 p.m., minutes before the Israeli army announced that it was “carrying out strikes on the Gaza Strip”.
The strikes targeted three Hamas training camps in Gaza City and another in the center of the micro-territory under the control of this Islamist movement, according to a Palestinian security source. The strikes were still in progress half an hour later and the sound of aircraft could be heard clearly above the town.
30 rockets fired at Israel
“We will strike our enemies and they will pay the price for each attack,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier at the opening of a meeting of the restricted security cabinet.
In the afternoon, more than thirty rockets were fired in the direction of Israel from Lebanon, an escalation unparalleled on the Israeli-Lebanese front since 2006. The Israeli army has accused Palestinian militants of being behind these shootings that injured at least one person and caused material damage on the day of Passover.
This outburst of violence on Israel’s northern border has prompted condemnation and calls for restraint, and comes after the brutal irruption, in the middle of Ramadan, of the Israeli police in the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, the third holiest site in the Islam, widely denounced by neighboring countries and to which several Palestinian groups have promised a response.