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TEL AVIV-Israel and Gaza have settled into a difficult truce on Sunday after their most intense fighting since the 2014 war over the weekend, reflecting pressure on the Israeli prime minister
Benjamin Netanyahu
The Israeli government has found ways to end the campaign of Hamas attacks against the border.
The Israeli army hit dozens of Hamas targets in Gaza during an air campaign on Saturday, according to Netanyahu. four years ago, in response to an escalation of mortar and rocket fire from Gaza. The Israeli army said the targets included a headquarters of the Hamas battalion in the northern Gaza Strip, a series of military tunnels and an abandoned Gaza City building that would serve as a training center for the Gaza Strip. urban warfare. after an Israeli soldier was wounded by a grenade during Friday's border demonstrations and as Gaza militants launched more than 200 rockets and mortars in Israel during the night from Friday to Saturday
"Our policy is clear: Great strength, "Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting Sunday. "We are not ready to accept attacks against us, and we will react appropriately."
Two Palestinians were killed by an Israeli airstrike and three Israelis were injured by bombing of Gaza.
to calm down after Hamas announced a ceasefire brokered by Egypt. Although the Israeli authorities do not admit to being parties to a ceasefire agreement, they said the strikes in Gaza would only continue if more provocations occurred. On Sunday afternoon, Israel said its plane had targeted a Hamas team in Gaza preparing to launch criminal attacks against Israel.
Israel's aerial bombardment hardened the position of Mr. Netanyahu, who was criticized rockets and mortars and incendiary kites and balloons that terrorized the people of southern Israel
Lots rockets and mortars are intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome defense system, but they trigger air raid sirens and force Israelis into shelters. . Kites and balloons are not usually a deadly threat, but they have damaged thousands of acres of Israeli farmland and presented images of a besieged Israeli region.
Israeli politicians pressured Mr. Netanyahu to treat fires as a military threat "I am against any ceasefire that does not include a complete cessation of kites and burning balloons, "Naftali Bennett, Israeli Minister of Education and member of the Israeli National Security Cabinet. , said Sunday. He hopes to replace Mr. Netanyahu as Prime Minister in the future.
Netanyahu denied Sunday that Israel had reached a ceasefire that would allow criminal attacks to continue.
Last Monday, in an effort to pressure Hamas to end gunfire and artillery fire, Netanyahu closed the Kerem Shalom border crossing. It is the main road for commercial goods and humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip from Israel. Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza have been intermittently firing mortar and rocket fire since May, according to Hamas, which has described the threat of a crime against humanity as a "crime against humanity". l & # 39; humanity. Palestinian protests at the border fence that have often been violent. Gazans called for an end to the Israeli blockade and allowed them to return to the land from which the Palestinians fled during the war against Israel in 1968.
More than 100 Palestinians were killed and thousands injured by Israeli fire began. Israel maintains that many of those it killed were Hamas militants and said its security concerns with Hamas necessitated its blockade of Gaza.
A shooting similar to that of the weekend between Israel and Gaza took place at the end of May. the courtier ceasefire and Israeli officials saying that the calm of Gaza would be reciprocated by Israel.
-Abu Bakr Bashir in Cairo and Dov Lieber in Tel Aviv contributed to this article.
Write to Felicia Schwartz at [email protected]
