“We will continue to protect innocent Israeli citizens from the firing of rockets into our territory according to worldwide law and in accordance with our responsibility and conscience”, the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s response read. “Witnesses said a base of Hamas”;s military wing the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, in nearby Beit Lahya, was also hit.
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A small armed faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, claimed responsibility for the rocket fire, Israel’s Channel 2 television reported, but Israel holds the Hamas group responsible for all attacks from the territory it rules. Israeli police later arrived to the scene where the rocket landed and closed off the area, an Israeli police spokesperson said in a statement.
Palestinian gunmen fired at least one rocket from Gaza into Israel Sunday afternoon, that landed in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, less than a mile from the border with the Gaza Strip.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said: “We hold (Israel) responsible for the escalation in the Gaza Strip and we stress that its aggression will not succeed in breaking the will of our people and dictate terms to the resistance”.
No one has claimed responsibility for the rocket that was sacked from Gaza into the southern city of Sderot.
Palestinian Health Ministry official Ashraf al-Qidra said two Palestinians, including a 17-year-old boy, were lightly wounded.
The Turkish parliament formally ratified it late on Friday, after a delay caused by the attempted coup. Ten Turkish activists were killed in the raid.
It said Turkey will continue to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people against Israeli action that violates worldwide law and offends the conscience.
“[Rocket] fire into Israeli territory will be met with a particularly harsh and powerful response”, the defense official adds, a day after Israel launched dozens of airstrikes in Gaza in response to rocket fire on the southern city of Sderot.
The following year, Erdogan – then prime minister – denounced Israel as a “terrorist state”, accusing it of “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza.
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Israeli cabinet ministers approved the deal with Turkey Ankara although in June failed to send it to parliament due to time pressure by a rogue faction that was military.
