Israel conducts fresh air raids on Gaza after anti-settlement protests across Palestine
The Israeli military has conducted fresh air strikes on the Gaza Strip after Palestinians in the blockaded enclave and the occupied West Bank marked a “day of rage” in protest against the US’s contentious declaration of support for the regime’s land grab policy.
As Reported by Qods News Agency (Qodsna)The Israeli military said its fighter jets had hit a number of targets belonging to the Hamas resistance movement in southern Gaza late Tuesday night and early Wednesday, including one site “for the production of arms.”
“The strikes were carried out in response to the rockets that were fired from the Strip toward” the occupied territories, it added.
An Israeli army spokesperson said two rockets were fired from Gaza on Tuesday. He added that sirens went off in Ashkelon in the aftermath of the rocket fire, sending tens of thousands of residents into shelters.
Prior to the air raids, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Gaza-based resistance groups against firing rockets into Israel.
“If someone in Gaza thinks it’s safe to attack us after Operation Black Belt — they’re making a serious mistake. We will respond aggressively to any attack against us,” he said, referring to the intense fighting between
the Israeli army and the Palestinian resistance movement Islamic Jihad earlier this month.
On November 12-13, the two sides engaged in a fight after Israel assassinated senior Islamic Jihad commander Baha Abu al-Ata, along with his wife, in a targeted strike on their home in Gaza.
During the flare-up — which killed a total of 35 Palestinians — Tel Aviv conducted dozens of airstrikes on Gaza, while Palestinian resistance fighters fired over 450 rockets and mortar shells into the occupied territories.
Palestinians rage against Israel’s US-backed land theft
The Israeli raids followed heavy clashes earlier on Tuesday between Israeli forces and Palestinian protesters during the “day of rage” rallies that were prompted by Washington’s U-turn on the Tel Aviv regime’s settlement expansion policy.