Israel and Gaza exchange fire after health worker killed
▶ Air strikes launched in retaliation to terror activities, says Israeli army
Israeli aircraft struck more than a dozen targets in Gaza, the Israeli army said yesterday, after Palestinian rocket fire shattered a ceasefire reached just days ago after the worst flare-up since the war in 2014.
The latest escalation came hours after thousands of Palestinians attended the funeral of a young female volunteer medic killed by Israeli fire in violence on the border in southern Gaza.
Razan Alnajjar, 21, a volunteer with the Gaza health ministry, was shot in the chest near Khan Younis on Friday
In a first wave of air strikes, Israeli “fighter jets targeted 10 terror sites in three military compounds belonging to the Hamas terror organisation in the Gaza Strip”, the Israeli army said early yesterday.
“Among the targets were two Hamas munition manufacturing and storage sites and a military compound,” it said.
The strikes were said to be in retaliation to rockets fired at Israel, as well as “various terror activities approved and orchestrated by the Hamas terror organisation over the weekend”, the army said.
The army listed a series of attempted attacks on soldiers on the border fence, as well as “damaging security infrastructure and igniting fires in Israeli territory with the use of arson kites and balloons”.
A few hours later aircraft shot at “five terror targets at a military compound belonging to the Hamas terror organisation’s naval force in the northern Gaza Strip”, the army said.
There were no reports of casualties in Gaza.
On Saturday evening, armed groups in the Palestinian enclave fired two projectiles at south Israel, where air raid sirens sent residents to bomb shelters.
The Iron Dome aerial defence system intercepted one of the projectiles, while the other was believed to have fallen short of its target and came down in Gaza, according to the army.
Yesterday, four more projectiles were launched at Israel. Three were intercepted, the army said, with the fourth apparently hitting an open field.
The weekend launches were the first since Israel said it had struck about 65 militant sites in Gaza this week in retaliation for a barrage of about 100 rockets and missiles fired from the territory on Tuesday and Wednesday.
No group in Gaza claimed responsibility for the projectile attacks, which came shortly after Alnajjar’s funeral on Saturday.
Ambulances and medical crews attended the funeral, with Alnajjar’s father holding the white blood-stained medics’ jacket she wore when she was killed, as mourners called for revenge.
Gazans have since March 30 staged border protests demanding Palestinians be allowed to return to land they fled or were expelled from during the 1948 war over Israel’s creation.
More than 120 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers using live ammunition on protesters. About 13,000 demonstrators have been wounded, more than 3,000 by Israeli gunfire.
As well as protesting, Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave have been using kites carrying burning cans to set Israeli fields on fire, burning patches of agricultural land near Gaza.
The Israeli army said “a terror cell” had infiltrated from southern Gaza. Soldiers shot at the Palestinians, who returned to the enclave.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the strikes that Israel’s military had delivered the “harshest blow” in years to Gaza’s armed groups.
Palestinian groups in Gaza, including the strip’s rulers Hamas, said a ceasefire deal was reached after the flare-up, although there was no confirmation from Israel.
Addressing Alnajjar’s death, the UN envoy for the Middle East, Nickolay Mladenov, said in a Twitter posting on Saturday that “Medical workers are #NotATarget” and that “Israel needs to calibrate its use of force and Hamas needs to prevent incidents at the fence”.
The Palestinian Medical Relief Society said Alnajjar was shot “attempting to provide first aid to an injured protester”, with three other first responders also hit by live fire on Friday.
“Shooting at medical personnel is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions,” the PMRC said, demanding “an immediate international response to Israeli humanitarian law violations in Gaza”.
The demonstrations and violence peaked on May 14, when more than 60 Palestinians were killed in clashes as tens of thousands of Gazans protested against the US transfer of its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem the same day.
Yesterday, Gaza’s health ministry announced the death of Mohammad Hamada, 30, who was wounded during the embassy protests.
Low-level demonstrations have continued since.
Speaking at Alnajjar’s funeral, Khaled Al Batsh, one of the protest organisers, called on Gazans to “continue the return marches and break the [Israeli] siege with peaceful tools”.
Israel needs to calibrate its use of force and Hamas needs to prevent incidents at the fence NICKOLAY MLADENOV UN envoy