Israel launched airstrikes against Hamas in the Gaza Strip late on Thursday. (Representative)
Gaza City:
Israel launched airstrikes against Hamas in the Gaza Strip late Thursday after retaliating for a barrage of cross-border rockets fired from Lebanon, which it blamed on Palestinian groups.
Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have risen during both the Jewish Passover and the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, prompting condemnation and calls for restraint from abroad.
Clashes broke out between Israeli police and Palestinians on Wednesday at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque – Islam’s third holiest site – in the latest outbreak of violence.
On Thursday, Israel’s military said 34 rockets had been fired into Israel from Lebanese territory since Israel and Hezbollah fought a 34-day war in 2006.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Israel’s enemies would “pay the price for any act of aggression”.
Shortly thereafter, AFP reporters heard explosions in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army said in a statement that it had struck two tunnels and “two Hamas-related weapons manufacturing sites” in response to security breaches by Hamas during the past few days.
After this attack, several missiles were fired from Gaza towards Israel.
In a statement, Hamas said Israel was “responsible for this aggression and its consequences” and called on all Palestinian groups to unite against the “occupation”.
The Israeli army said its air defense systems intercepted 25 rockets fired and five landed in Israeli territory.
Army spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht blamed Palestinian groups for the attack.
“We know for sure that this is a Palestinian fire,” he told reporters. “It could be Hamas, it could be Islamic Jihad, we are still trying to finalize, but it was not Hezbollah.
He added, “We believe that Hezbollah knew about this, and Lebanon has some responsibility as well. We are also investigating whether Iran was involved.”
– Lebanon rejects ‘increase’-
Lebanon’s acting Prime Minister Najib Mikati said he rejected any “escalation” from his country following the rocket attack.
Israeli emergency services reported a man with shrapnel injuries and a woman with injuries while running to a shelter during the attack.
“I heard sirens, I heard booms, I was in my house, it was very, very scary,” 46-year-old Shlomi Naaman told AFP while inspecting her damaged office in the city of Shlomi.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, which patrols the border area between the two countries technically still at war, urged restraint.
“The current situation is extremely serious,” the force said. “Unifil urges restraint and avoidance of further escalation.”
“In view of the volatile and dangerous situation, as per standard protocol, civilian and military personnel were ordered to take shelter in bunkers at their bases,” the UN force said.
The Israeli army previously denied reports from Lebanon’s national news agency that it had struck targets in southern Lebanon.
According to Lebanese reports, Israeli artillery fired “several shells from their positions on the border” towards the outskirts of the two villages following the launch of “several Katyusha-type rockets” into Israel.
A statement said Defense Minister Yoav Galant “completed a situation assessment with senior officials in Israel’s defense establishment”, after which he instructed them to “prepare all possible responses to recent events”.
– Al-Aqsa conflict –
Israeli riot police on Wednesday targeted the prayer hall of the Al-Aqsa mosque in a pre-dawn raid aimed at dispersing “law-breaking youths and masked agitators” they said had barricaded themselves inside.
The violence escalated with militants exchanging rockets and airstrikes in the Gaza Strip during both the Jewish Passover and the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters that the US said it “recognizes Israel’s legitimate right to defend itself against all forms of aggression.”
UN chief Antonio Guterres condemned the rocket fire from Lebanon and called for “maximum restraint by all actors”.
France condemned what it called “indiscriminate rocket fire targeting Israeli territory from Gaza and southern Lebanon”.
Lebanon’s Iran-backed armed movement Hezbollah warned on Thursday it would support “all measures” the Palestinian group could take against Israel in the aftermath of the conflict.
The Lebanese group has close ties with the Islamist movement Hamas, which rules Gaza, and with the Islamic Jihad terrorist group, which is also based in the coastal enclave.
The rockets came a day after Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh arrived in Lebanon for a visit.
Haniyeh said late Thursday that Palestinians “will not sit with their arms crossed” in the face of Israeli “aggression” against al-Aqsa.
In a statement he called on “all Palestinian organizations to unite their ranks and intensify their resistance against the Zionist occupation (Israel)”.
The last rocket from Lebanon to Israel was fired in April 2022.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)