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JERUSALEM – Israeli fighter planes attacked targets in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the US military announced a few hours after launching a nightly rocket led by militants on Israeli territory. a house in Beersheba town, in southern Israel, after an intense escalation Israel-Gaza border.
The residents of the house – a woman and her three young children – have been treated for shock, according to Israeli emergency services. The media and residents have also reported a second rocket falling into the sea after being shot in the night towards the overcrowded coastal area of central Israel, although the Israel Defense Forces refused to confirm it.
Shortly after the first Israeli strikes, leading militant groups in Gaza, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, issued a joint statement in which they deny responsibility for firing rockets against Israel. The possibility that the rockets were fired by a smaller and rogue group increased the likelihood that both parties would try to contain the hostilities and not allow them to degenerate into total conflict, even if the situation remained unstable.
A few hours later, Israel said it had targeted a team of militants who were trying to launch more rockets on southern Israel. According to a health official in Gaza, one Palestinian was killed and three Palestinians were wounded in previous airstrikes on militant targets in Rafah, southern Gaza.
The exchange took place after seven Palestinians were killed on Friday by Israeli gunfire during a particularly stormy day of demonstrations. Four of the dead had broken through the fence separating Gaza from Israeli territory and had attempted to reach a sniper position, and one was armed with a knife, according to Israeli forces on the scene.
In recent weeks, Palestinians have also resumed flying incendiary balloons from Gaza, some equipped with small explosive devices and others designed to light fires in Israel.
Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned Tuesday during a visit to the Gaza division of the Israeli army: "We have all come to the conclusion that the situation as it is is today can not continue. "
Lieberman, known for his tough attitude towards Palestinians, said that Israel had tried to use peaceful means to reduce tensions in the region, which have increased since the beginning of the war. border demonstrations at the end of March, notably by cooperating in international mediation efforts and stabilizing the ceasefire that ended the 50-day war between Israel and the militants in Gaza in 2014.
"We have exhausted all options, all possibilities," he said. "The time has come to make decisions."
Israel must "strike a blow to Hamas," Lieberman said, referring to the militant Islamist group that controls Gaza.
In the aftermath of the night strike in Beersheba, Lieberman announced that Israel would close the border crossing points between Israel and Gaza and limit the fishing zone off the Gaza coast to three nautical miles.
These steps came after Lieberman declared that he was putting an end to Israel's fuel transfers to the Gaza Strip in response to Friday's violent protests. Fuel transfers were a first sign of progress after weeks of intense efforts by Egypt and the UN to mediate a stable ceasefire between Israel and the United Nations. Hamas.
Hamas has been organizing weekly demonstrations along the Israeli border for six months to protest the blockade of the impoverished Palestinian territory.
The demonstrations, called the "big comeback" by the Palestinians, are intended to highlight the Palestinians' demands to return to land that has become Israeli and to draw attention to the strict restrictions imposed by Israel on the territory, with the help of Egypt, for security reasons.
Since the protests began, about 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. Israel says it is reacting to prevent breaches in the fence in violation of its sovereignty and to protect Israeli civilians living near the border. An Israeli soldier was killed by an elite gunman in Gaza. Palestinians and human rights groups accused Israel of being tough on demonstrations that resulted in the deaths of many unarmed civilians.
Nevertheless, the nightly rocket fire was a surprise shortly after the arrival of a senior Egyptian Intelligence Service delegation to Gaza for meetings with Hamas officials to continue discussions with a view to A truce with Israel and the reconciliation between Hamas and its rival, the Palestinian Authority. in the West Bank.
The main factions in Gaza suggested in their joint statement that the rocket fire was an attempt to sabotage the Egyptian mediation effort and called it "irresponsible".
The sirens sounded in Beersheba around 3.40am, sending residents to shelters and secure rooms, but the Israeli Iron Dome air defense system appears to have failed to identify the rocket.
The army said the rocket had hit the children's bedrooms but their mother had saved them by rushing them to a bomb shelter when the siren sounded, with a few seconds to spare. Television footage showed the house badly damaged, with a hole where the rocket had torn the roof.
Ruti Hai, a neighbor, told Israeli television that it was a "miracle" that everyone had survived. She described the mother of the house struck, a single mother, as a "true hero".
Iyad Abuheweila contributed to reports from the city of Gaza.
