Israel launches airstrikes on Gaza after rocket attacks

• Israel targeted weapons manufacturing and storage sites in Gaza.
• The bombings came after at least 11 Palestinians were killed in Nablus.
• The occupied West Bank has been shaken by a series of violent Israeli military incursions.

Israel launched airstrikes targeting alleged weapons manufacturing and storage sites in Gaza on Thursday, following a rocket attack from the coastal enclave, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

In a statement, the IDF said “fighter jets struck a weapons manufacturing site” in central Gaza owned by Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that runs Gaza.

“In parallel, a military compound belonging to the Hamas Terrorist Organization in the northern Gaza Strip which also was used as a naval weapons storage warehouse was struck,” the statement said.

Earlier Thursday, the IDF said five rockets fired from Gaza toward Israeli territory, including the cities of Ashkelon and Sderot, were intercepted and another rocket fell in an open area

The bombings came after at least 11 Palestinians were killed in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, on Wednesday during a rare daytime raid by the Israeli military, which also injured more than 100 people. According to the organization, one of those killed in the Nablus raid was a Hamas member.

IDF raids into the West Bank are typically performed at night; the last time the military launched a daylight operation, they said it was due to an imminent threat.

‘Violent and deadly’

In the past year, the occupied West Bank has been shaken by a series of violent Israeli military incursions, as tensions between Israel and the Palestinian territories remain high in a region riven by death.

An Israeli raid on the West Bank city of Jenin in January resulted in the worst day for Palestinians in almost a year, with at least ten Palestinians killed on the day and one dying later of his wounds. The next day, at least seven civilians were killed in a shooting near a synagogue in Jerusalem, which Israel described as one of its worst terror acts in recent years.

This comes as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu leads the country’s most far-right and religious cabinet in its history.

Netanyahu previously stated that Israelis can become “hung up” on peace talks with the Palestinians, but he has chosen a different approach.

Also Read

Ten Palestinians killed during Israeli raid in occupied West Bank

10 Palestinians, including an elderly man and many militants, were killed in...