Tel Aviv is our next target, Hamas declares

“Next time, the barrage of rockets will reach Tel Aviv,” Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar warned at a rally, waving a handgun in the air.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

At a rally Friday attended by hundreds in Gaza, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar waved a handgun in the air, shouting into the microphone that Israel’s economic capital was in imminent danger.

“Next time, the barrage of rockets will reach Tel Aviv and Gush Dan [the surrounding area],” he declared in a display of power at a memorial event for seven terrorists who were killed by Israeli special forces during a firefight last Sunday. That incident set off the latest attack by Hamas and Islamic Jihad in which 470 rockets and mortars were fired at southern Israeli communities over the next day and a half.

The Iron Dome defensive system shot down approximately one hundred missiles, but several dozen managed to hit populated areas, injuring dozens and destroying several homes and businesses.

Israel retaliated by hitting some 150 targets, including terrorist tunnels and command centers in precision bombing attacks, killing only a handful of terrorists. The IDF had warned Gazans about the locations of the bombings ahead of time in order to prevent civilian casualties.

Sinwar quoted Hamas’ military, Muhammad Deif, as saying that if the IDF dares launch a military operation in the Strip, “the first barrage to hit Tel Aviv will surprise Israel.”

“I advise Israel not to try and test us again,” Sinwar warned, adding  that “whoever tests Gaza will find only death and poison. Our missiles are more precise, have a greater range and carry more explosives than in the past.”

While speaking, he held in the air a gun attached to a silencer which he claimed had belonged to one of the undercover IDF soldiers in the botched Sunday raid that left one Israeli commando dead and another seriously wounded.