Israeli-Palestinian clash worst since 2014 war
JERUSALEM — Palestinian militants bombarded southern Israel with dozens of rockets and mortar shells Tuesday, while Israeli warplanes struck targets throughout the Gaza Strip in the largest flareup of violence between the sides since a 2014 war.
The Israeli military said most of the projectiles were intercepted, but three soldiers were wounded, raising the chances of further Israeli retaliation. One mortar shell landed near a kindergarten shortly before it opened.
The sudden burst of violence, which stretched past midnight with no signs of slowing, follows weeks of mass Palestinian protests along the Gaza border with Israel. More than 110 Palestinians, many of them unarmed protesters, have been killed by Israeli fire in that time. Israel said it holds Gaza’s Hamas rulers responsible for the bloodshed.
“Israel will exact a heavy price from those who seek to harm it, and we see Hamas as responsible for preventing such attacks,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Israel and Hamas are bitter enemies and have fought three wars since the Islamic group seized control of Gaza in 2007.
The last war in 2014 was especially devastating, with more than 2,000 Palestinians killed, including hundreds of civilians, and widespread damage inflicted on Gaza’s infrastructure in 50 days of fighting. Seventy-two people were killed on the Israeli side.
Tuesday’s violence bore a striking resemblance to the run-up to past wars. In the early morning, Palestinian militants fired more than two dozen mortar rounds into southern Israel, including the shell that landed near the kindergarten.
The Israeli military confirmed more than 60 airstrikes throughout Gaza, including an unfinished tunnel near the southern city of Rafah that crossed under the border into Egypt and from there into Israeli territory. It said other targets included “sheds of drones,” a rocket manufacturing workshop, naval weaponry, military and training facilities and a munitions manufacturing site. No Palestinian casualties were reported.
Palestinian militants continued to fire additional barrages toward southern Israel, setting off air raid sirens in the area throughout the night.
Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis, the chief military spokesman, threatened tougher action and said it was up to Hamas to stop the situation from escalating.
“These strikes will continue to intensify as long as necessary if this fire continues,” he told reporters outside Israeli military headquarters.
Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant issued a joint statement Tuesday, claiming shared responsibility for firing rockets and projectiles against Israeli communities near Gaza.
They said Israel “began this round of escalation” by targeting their installations in the past two days, killing four militants. It was the first time the armed wing of Hamas had claimed responsibility for rocket attacks out of Gaza since the 2014 war.
An Islamic Jihad spokesman, Daoud Shehab, said Egypt had brokered a ceasefire deal to go into effect at midnight. But more than an hour after the deadline, rocket fire and Israeli airstrikes were continuing.
Also Tuesday, two fishing boats carrying students and medical patients set sail from Gaza City’s port, aiming to reach Cyprus and break the Israeli blockade, which has restricted most activity along the coast. Hamas acknowledged it was mostly a symbolic act. One of the boats quickly turned around, while the Israeli navy intercepted the second vessel after it ventured beyond a 10-kilometre limit imposed by Israel.