Israel attacks Hamas after Gaza rocket attack on Ashkelon area

“The guy who fired last time is no longer with us; whoever fired now should start packing his belongings,” said Netanyahu.

By World Israel News Staff 

The Israel Air Force attacked terror targets in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire on Israel from Gaza, the Israeli military announced early Thursday.

The IDF reported that a rocket had been fired from Gaza and that the Israeli Iron Dome air defense system intercepted the projectile.

In the Israeli response to the Gazan rocket attack, the IDF tweeted that fighter jets and attack helicopters struck “a number of terror targets of the Hamas terror organization in the Gaza Strip, including military compounds of the organization.”

The IDF reiterated the Israeli position that Hamas is held accountable for all attacks from the territory which it rules, and “will bear the consequences,” even if the organization itself did not fire the rocket. Hamas snatched the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian Authority in June 2007 in a coup.

“The guy who fired last time is no longer with us; whoever fired now should start packing his belongings,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on social media Wednesday night after the Gazan air attack.

He was referring to Israel’s targeted killing of senior Islamic Jihad commander Baha Abu Al Ata in Gaza City on November 12.

“He was responsible for many terrorist attacks and the firing of rockets at Israel in recent months and had intended to carry out imminent attacks,” Netanyahu’s office tweeted at the time.