IDF fighter planes struck Hamas terrorist targets in Gaza in response to an earlier attack. Sirens were sounded as an Israeli home was reportedly hit by a rocket fired from Gaza.
By: World Israel News and TPS
“IDF fighter planes struck Hamas terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip in response to the terrorist incident earlier today,” an IDF spokesman said in a statement, referring to the launching of an explosive device targeting an IDF patrol Saturday. Four soldiers were wounded, two seriously.
“Today’s incident on the Gaza Strip border is severe. We will respond appropriately,” Netanyahu stated regarding the attack, followed by the IDF retaliatory strikes.
The military hit several targets, including a Hamas terror tunnel under construction from the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City toward Israeli territory, a military compound in the Netzarim region belonging to Hamas and housing military installations, and a Hamas military compound in the Khan Younes region.
In total, the IDF attacked six targets belonging to Hamas.
Sirens sounded at a number of communities in the Eshkol Regional Council in the Western Negev.
The IDF “sees with gravity attempts by Hamas to use supposedly spontaneous popular demonstrations to turn the border region into an arena of conflict and to execute terrorist operations,” an army statement said.
The IDF also warned Hamas that it was “responsible for the event and its consequences and for everything that occurs in the Gaza Strip above and below ground.”
While this is an developing story, the following timeline reports of rocket attacks from Gaza have emerged:
22:20 A mortar landed near to a house in a kibbutz in the Sh’ar Hanegev region.
22:24 A security source told TPS that the sirens sounded in the Eshkol region were most likely set off by machine gun fire toward Israeli jets and helicopters flying over the Gaza Strip. Earlier, the IDF said the sires in the Eshkol region were a false alarm. Hamas claims it fired anti-aircraft fire at Israeli jets.
22:45 A rocket hit a house in the Sha’ar Hanegev region, but did not explode.
23:04 An IDF tank opened fire after four Palestinians were spotted trying to cross the border fence near Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Palestinian sources report casualties in the incident.