Hamas fires rockets into sea in message to Israel
Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, fired rockets into the sea yesterday after repeated exchanges of fire with Israel, Palestinian security sources said.
At least eight rockets were seen in the sky, heading towards the Mediterranean Sea, said witnesses in the coastal strip, which has been under Israeli blockade for more than a decade.
The interior ministry of the Palestinian enclave under Hamas control since 2007 referred to the rocket fire as “an act of resistance”.
The rockets were a message to Israel to let it know that armed groups in Gaza will not remain silent in the face of an Israeli blockade and aggression, a source close to Hamas said.
The source said that yesterday’s rocket fire coincided with the launch of incendiary balloons into Israel.
In the past week, such balloons have flown three times from Gaza into Israel, each time triggering retaliatory strikes against Hamas positions.
The latest was on Sunday night, when the Israeli military announced that one of its aircraft struck a Hamas observation post in northern Gaza.
Hamas and Israel have fought three wars since 2008.
Despite a truce last year, backed by the UN, Egypt and Qatar, the two sides clash sporadically with rockets, mortar fire or incendiary balloons from Gaza and retaliatory strikes by Israel.
Palestinian analysts said fire from Gaza was often intended to pressurise Israel to approve the transfer of Qatari financial aid to Hamas.
According to the World Bank, about 53 per cent of Gaza’s population lived below the poverty line just before the Covid-19 crisis.
That number could rise to more than 60 per cent because of economic fallout from the pandemic, it said.
So far 78, cases of coronavirus, including one death, were recorded in the enclave of two million, where schools reopened at the weekend.