{"id":35503,"date":"2019-03-15T07:24:24","date_gmt":"2019-03-15T07:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=35503"},"modified":"2019-03-15T07:24:24","modified_gmt":"2019-03-15T07:24:24","slug":"israeli-launches-gaza-strikes-after-rockets-fired-at-tel-aviv-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=35503","title":{"rendered":"Israeli launches Gaza strikes after rockets fired at Tel Aviv"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nTEL AVIV: Israeli military aircraft bombed at least 100 Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip early on Friday, hours after two rockets were launched at Tel Aviv in the first such attack since a 2014 war.<\/p>\n

\nAfter the overnight exchanges, sirens sounded again in Israeli border towns after dawn. The Israeli military confirmed two more missile launches from the Gaza Strip toward Israel, but said both were intercepted by Israel\u2019s Iron Dome defense system.<\/p>\n

\nPalestinian news media reported strikes throughout Gaza, from Rafah in the south to the north of the densely populated coastal strip that is home to two million Palestinians.<\/p>\n

\nMost of the Israeli strikes were reported to have targeted facilities used by Hamas\u2019s security forces. The buildings had been evacuated as a precaution, as the Islamist militant group had expected an Israeli response.<\/p>\n

\nHealth ministry officials in Gaza said two people, a man and a woman, were wounded when their house was damaged in Rafah in the early morning.<\/p>\n

\nWitnesses said powerful explosions from the air strikes rocked buildings in Gaza and lit the skies over targeted sites.<\/p>\n

\nThe Israeli military said it was targeting \u201cterror sites\u201d in Gaza. It said rocket sirens were sounded in Israeli communities near the Gaza border.<\/p>\n

\nOn Thursday night, the sirens howled farther north, in Tel Aviv, Israel\u2019s commercial capital, set off by what the military said were two incoming, longer-range rockets from Gaza.<\/p>\n

\nThat salvo caused no casualties or damage, missing built-up areas. But it rattled Israeli nerves ahead of an April 9 election in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking a fifth term on the strength of his national security credentials.<\/p>\n

\nExplosions were heard in Tel Aviv and witnesses said interceptor missiles had and detonated – although the military said no rockets were shot down.<\/p>\n

\nIt was the first such attack on the city since the 2014 Gaza war between Hamas and Israel. There have been several smaller rounds of fighting since, reined in by Egyptian and UN mediations.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis was basically a surprise,\u201d military spokesman Brigadier-General Ronen Manelis told Israel Radio on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\nIn that interview, Manelis said Israel did not yet know who had carried out the rocket launches. But another Israeli military spokesman laid the blame on Hamas on Friday.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cHamas carried out the rocket fire against Tel Aviv yesterday evening,\u201d Lieutenant-Colonel Avichay Adraee said.<\/p>\n

\nHamas denied involvement, saying the launches took place as its leaders met Egyptian delegates about efforts to secure a long-term ceasefire with Israel.<\/p>\n

\nIslamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees, two smaller Gaza armed factions, also denied responsibility.<\/p>\n

\nIsraeli analysts speculated that Palestinian militants opposed to any deal between Hamas and Israel were behind the launchings.<\/p>\n

\nThe flare-up of Thursday and Friday drew a U.S. statement of support for Israel.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cHamas and other terror orgs in Gaza continue to fail their people day after day & drag Gaza further & further down by constantly choosing violence,\u201d Jason Greenblatt, the White House\u2019s Middle East envoy, said on Twitter. \u201cThis method will never work. Ever!\u201d<\/p>\n

\nNaftali Bennett, a right-wing member of Netanyahu\u2019s security Cabinet whose party is competing against the veteran prime minister\u2019s for votes in the looming election, demanded that Israel resume its assassination of Hamas chiefs.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe time has come to defeat Hamas once and for all,\u201d he said on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

\nNetanyahu also faced pressure from the center-left opposition, whose leading candidate, former General Benny Gantz, said: \u201cOnly aggressive, harsh action will restore the deterrence that has eroded\u201d under the prime minister\u2019s watch.<\/p>\n

\nTensions have been high for the past year along the Israel-Gaza frontier since Palestinians began violent protests near Israel\u2019s border fence that have often drawn a lethal response from the Israeli military.<\/p>\n

\nAbout 200 Palestinians have been killed in the demonstrations and about 60 more Palestinians have died in other incidents, including exchanges of fire across the border. Two Israeli soldiers have been killed by Palestinian fire.<\/p>\n

\nThe one-year anniversary of the start of the protests is on March 30.<\/p>\n

\nOn Friday, Islamic Jihad\u2019s armed wing said in a statement that it declared full alert among its fighters to respond to Israeli attacks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TEL AVIV: Israeli military aircraft bombed at least 100 Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip early on Friday, hours after two rockets were launched at Tel Aviv in the first such attack since a 2014 war. After the overnight exchanges, sirens sounded again in Israeli border towns after dawn. The Israeli military confirmed two more…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}