Israeli warplanes launched a series of airstrikes over the Palestinian city of Gaza on Sunday night, as retaliation after a rocket was sacked from within Gaza into the southern Israeli city of Sderot. The air strikes came after a rocket was sacked earlier in the day from the territory into Israel, landing in an open area and injuring no one. It landed near the Sderot Train Station and Sapir College.
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A senior army official, however, told Haaretz on the condition of anonymity that there was “no intention to escalate the situation”.
Schuster said that though sporadic fire is par for the course, “The area has been very quiet in the last two years”, since Operation Protective Edge, the war that Israel fought against Hamas in Gaza.
Israel automatically responds militarily every time militants launch a projectile from Gaza but Sunday night’s strikes marked the most serious escalation since the end of the Gaza war two years ago.
“In response to the rocket attack from the Gaza Strip, the IAF [Israeli air force] and tanks targeted two Hamas posts in the northern Gaza Strip”, Lerner said in a statement. Israeli police later arrived to the scene where the rocket landed and closed off the area, an Israeli police spokesperson said in a statement.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister was quoted calling the IDF response a “hostile attitude” and fell short of any condemnation of the unprovoked rocket fire into southern Israel from Gaza.
No group claimed responsibility for the rocket that was sacked into the southern Israeli city of Sderot.
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It said Turkey will continue to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people against Israeli action that violates global law and offends the conscience. In addition, Avraham Mengistu and Juma Ibrahim Abu Anima, Israelis who voluntarily entered the Gaza in 2014, have not been heard from since and are believed to be held by Hamas. Some 73 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed in the offensive.
