The Israeli Air Force responded to a rocket attack early Thursday morning and attacked targets in the Gaza Strip. This was announced by the Israeli army (IDF) on Twitter. The target was a weapons factory belonging to the radical Islamic group Hamas and a laboratory for chemicals. “The IDF holds Hamas responsible for all terrorist activity emanating from the Gaza Strip and will therefore bear all the consequences of violating Israel’s security,” the Israel Defense Forces tweeted.
Earlier, Israeli media reports said that targets in a refugee camp in central Gaza had been attacked. A few hours before the airstrike, Israel’s military said it intercepted a rocket from the Gaza Strip. Alarm sirens were activated in the city of Sderot on the border with the Gaza Strip. The group “Lion’s Den”, consisting mainly of young men from various armed factions in the city of Nablus, claimed responsibility for the attack.
The situation between Israel and the Palestinians is currently extremely tense. Ten Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers in a raid on a refugee camp in the West Bank a week ago. A day later, a Palestinian killed seven people, including a child, in an attack in front of a synagogue. Since then, both sides have repeatedly attacked each other with rockets.
Shortly before the latest airstrike, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called for “urgent steps” to calm the situation during a visit to Israel. He urged “all sides to take urgent steps to restore calm and de-escalate now,” Blinken said at a press conference in Jerusalem on Monday after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
