A rocket fired from Gaza landed in the southern Israeli city of Sderot.
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“The attacks, which caused injuries to innocent Palestinian civilians, are not acceptable regardless of their grounds”, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement, Turkey’s Anadolu Agency reported Monday.
Turkey and Israel reached an agreement last month to end a six-year rift caused by a naval raid on a Turkish aid ship trying to breach the blockade of Gaza.
According to a Reuters report, a water tower in Beit Hanoun was damaged when Israel retaliated.
The missiles were fired minutes after it was confirmed by the Israeli army that a rocket was launched from the Gaza Strip and hit the city of Sderot.
“Turkey should think twice before it criticizes the military actions of other countries”, the statement read, adding that Israel would “continue to protect innocent people from rocket fire on our turf, in accordance with global law and in accordance with our conscience and responsibility”.
Hamas was quick to distance itself from the firing of the rocket but said Israel’s response was an attempt to change the status quo in Gaza.
Palestinians gather in the Gaza Strip for a rally against Israeli attacks on August 21.
Ynet quoted an official as saying that the hits Hamas took on Sunday night were “the hardest they’ve taken since Operation Protective Edge”, the IDF’s 2014 effort to stop rocket fire from Gaza that escalated into a conflict with the terrorist group that lasted almost two months.
The attacks come hours after an indiscriminate rocket bombing from an unknown (as of yet) group in the Palestinian territory on Israeli citizens.
“Israel will continue to defend its civilians from all rocket fire on our territory, in accordance with worldwide law and our conscience”.
Multiple air strikes later in the evening hit at least 30 different sites in the Gaza Strip belonging to Hamas, the smaller Islamic Jihad and other militant groups and two people were lightly hurt, Gaza health officials said.
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The following year, Erdogan – then prime minister – denounced Israel as a “terrorist state”, accusing it of “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza.
