Israel bombs Gaza after rocket fire, deadly Nablus raid
After repeated rocket launches from the beleaguered coastal enclave by Palestinian fighters amid unrest over an Israeli raid that left at least 11 Palestinians dead in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, Israel has attacked the Gaza Strip.
Black smoke rose over one of the targets north of Gaza City during the early Thursday morning attacks.
The Israeli cities of Sderot and Ashkelon were alerted by sirens set off by rockets fired from the Gaza Strip hours earlier, lighting up the night sky.
There were no reports of casualties right away.
Palestinian eyewitnesses claimed to have seen at least eight missiles launch, compared to the Israeli military’s estimate of six.
The sixth missile, according to the Israeli military, landed in an unpopulated area while five of the rockets were intercepted by its air defense system.
No Palestinian organization has publicly taken responsibility for the missile launch on Thursday.
The Israeli military’s raid on Nablus on Wednesday was deemed a “serious crime” that the “resistance must respond to” by the Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization. The coastal enclave’s ruling party, Hamas, had also issued a warning. According to spokesman Abu Obeida, “the resistance in Gaza is observing the enemy’s escalating crimes against our people in the occupied West Bank.” Their “patience is running gone,” he continued.
Since the second Intifada, or the Palestinian uprising of 2000–2005, the Nablus raid has been among the deadliest Israeli operations in the occupied West Bank. The number of fatalities on Wednesday exceeded that of an Israeli attack last month in the farther-northern city of Jenin.
Health officials said that a 16-year-old child and three Palestinian men, aged 72, 66, and 61, were among the victims in Nablus.
