IDF says Hamas submarine attack thwarted

The IDF said on Monday that its navy attacked a submarine allegedly belonging to the Hamas naval forces and trying to launch an offensive against Israel.

“It’s an important event”Jonathan Conricus, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman, said, adding that “the ship was of considerable size.”

More than 3,500 rockets have been fired at Israel since hostilities began last week. The IDF says more than 460 rockets missed the target and landed inside the Gaza Strip. Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system it intercepted 90% of the rockets launched against the country.

Claiming that Hamas’s ability to produce rockets has been significantly degraded, Conricus noted that “It will take a long time for them to recover and this is important for the future.”

The IDF said it hit more than 800 targets, adding that at least 130 militants were killed.

Reports by health officials in Gaza that about 200 Palestinians died, including dozens of children, and that more than 1,000 were injured. There were 10 Israeli deaths, including a child.

Destruction

The streets of Gaza remained deserted on Monday after another round of nightly attacks by the Israeli military, after a week that left more than 200 dead, the vast majority of Palestinians, while Hamas and Israel have turned a deaf ear to international calls for de-escalation.

On the night of Sunday to Monday, the Israeli air force carried out dozens of bomb attacks in the Gaza Strip, where several armed groups fired rockets at Israel.

Hundreds of buildings were damaged and the power cuts intensified, according to local authorities, who did not immediately report casualties.

In the afternoon, the streets of the enclave, where two million people live, were deserted, an AFP journalist confirmed.

The Israeli army said in a statement on Monday who attacked nine houses belonging to senior Hamas commanders, some of which were used to “store weapons”, and a ship “suspected of being a submersible naval weapon”.

Islamic Jihad, the second Palestinian armed group in the Gaza Strip, announced that Hosam Abu Harbid, one of its commanders, he had died in an attack.

“There has never been an attack of this caliber”said Mad Abed Rabbo, 39, who lives in western Gaza City and says he feels “the horror, the fear”.

Some 40,000 Palestinians fled their homes, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The World Food Program announced on Monday emergency aid to more than 51,000 people in the Gaza Strip ravaged by poverty and unemployment.

On Sunday, 42 Palestinians, including at least eight children and two doctors, killed in bomb attacks Israelis in Gaza, the highest death toll in a day, according to the local health ministry.

US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken on Monday called on Israel and the Palestinians to “protect civilians and in particular children”, reiterating that Israel, “as a democracy”, has a “special duty” in this regard.

In the occupied West Bank, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday received US envoy Hady Amr, to whom he asked for Washington’s “necessary intervention” to end “Israel’s aggression against the people. Palestinian, ”according to the official Wafa news agency. .

Amr, who met Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Sunday, said “importance of achieving de-escalation”, according to Wafa.

Israelis, especially those in the south of the country who live with continuous rocket scares, have been called on by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “limit your outdoor activities.”

The Israeli army, which claims that the targets of its bombing are the premises and equipment of Hamas as well as certain commanders and underground tunnels, accuses the Islamist movement of using civilians as “shields”.

The last major confrontation between Israel and Hamas dates back to the summer of 2014. The 51-day conflict devastated the Gaza Strip and left at least 2,251 dead on the Palestinian side, mostly civilians, and 74 among Israelis, for most soldiers.

Source: Xinhua and AFP

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