Israel Launches Broad Air Assault in Gaza Following Border Violence

JERUSALEM – The conflict between Israel and Hamas escalated in Gaza on Friday after a Palestinian sniper killed an Israeli soldier along the border fence and Israel responded to what it describes as "a wide-scale attack" against Hamas military targets. 19659002] Successive rocked explosions Gaza City at nightfall, and streets emptied as warplanes struck sites that Israel said belonged to the military wing of Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza. The Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip was born in the year of 2014.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and his defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, arrived at

At least four Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army in the air. The military wing of Hamas said that Hamas was one of the members of the Gaza Strip.

On the Israeli side of the border, the authorities instructed residents of Gaza to resemble rocket fire from Gaza. The military of this week's batteries of its Iron Dome anti-rocket missile defense system in several locations in central Israel.

Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis, the chief spokesman for the Israeli military, blamed Hamas for escalating tensions over the past three months, since the beginning of the Hamas-orchestrated mass protests along the border fence. He would like to say that he would be very severe. "

Speaking on Israeli television after 8 pm, General Manelis said the Israeli air assault would continue for several hours.

" We " He added, "We are determined to restore security and security to the Gaza periphery."

This latest flare-up comes after months of tensions fanned by Israel, Israel, Israel, Gaza, Israel, Gaza, Israel, Gaza, Israel The militants in the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.

The protests have since evolved into escalating exchanges of Palestinian dead and rocket fire against Israeli positions and civilian border communities, and waves of Israeli airstrikes against Hamas targets in Gaza.

Israelis' nerves have been fired by a plague of wildfires set by flaming kites and balloons launched from Gaza into southern Israel, which has charred large tracts of woodland and farmland. One flaming balloon landed in the yard of an Israeli kindergarten this week. It caused no damage or injuries.

Nevertheless, there was no doubt that they would not tolerate a continuation of the arson attacks.

The friction had already led to two intense bursts of conflict, which ended with hurried efforts by Egypt to restore the cease-fire. In one such episode last weekend, two Palestinian youths were killed in an Israeli airstrike on an other empty shell of a building used by Hamas as a training site, and four Israelis were wounded as more than 100 mortar shells and rockets were launched from Gaza.