IDF says it hit Hamas arms depot in Gaza in

IDF says it hit Hamas arms depot in Gaza in response to first missile in 4 months

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The Israeli military struck targets in the Gaza Strip after midnight Tuesday in response to a rocket fired hours earlier by the Hamas-controlled enclave.

The rocket attack was the first in nearly four months and ended one of the longest periods of silence on the Gaza Strip border in years.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it had bombed a number of targets, including a site used by Hamas to manufacture weapons. Media close to Hamas reported that the Israeli airstrikes targeted a facility run by Palestinian factions west of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Witnesses and security sources in Gaza reported that there were no casualties in the airstrike.

“The IDF holds Hamas responsible for what is happening in the Gaza Strip,” the army said.

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Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem tried to downplay the strikes.” The Zionist bombing of some vacant sites [is] a failed attempt to prevent our Palestinian people from defending the city of Jerusalem,” he said.

“Congratulations to the resistance men who confronted the fighter jets with our anti-aircraft defenses,” Qassem added, saying it was the first time Hamas had used the surface-to-air missile.

Pro-Hezbollah TV channel al-Mayadeen said Hamas used an SA-7 shoulder missile, also known as a Strella.

The IDF made no mention of damage to its own aircraft during the strike.

An unnamed security source told public broadcaster Kan that the Air Force believes Hamas has anti-aircraft missiles and that the terrorist group has previously used them in Israeli attacks.

The missile fired into southern Israel on Monday evening was intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system.

There were no reports of injuries resulting from the attack. Eshkol Regional Council said the instructions for residents have not changed.

After the missile was launched, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Defense Secretary Benny Gantz and military chief Aviv Kohavi held a meeting to discuss a possible response, according to Hebrew media reports.

The attack came amid escalating Israeli-Palestinian tensions following clashes and violence in Jerusalem’s Old City, a series of deadly Palestinian terrorist attacks and increased IDF activity against terror groups in the West Bank.

None of the terrorist groups based in the Gaza Strip directly claimed the rocket fire. Palestinian sources, quoted by public broadcaster Kan and news site Ynet, said the Palestinian Islamic Jihad was behind the attack.

After the rocket fire, Hamas approached Israel through Egyptian intermediaries to stress that it had no interest in further escalation and was not behind the attack, Kan said.

In the past, Israel has responded with air strikes on Hamas, Gaza’s ruler, locations, regardless of which group launched the attack. More rarely, when the terrorist group claimed responsibility, it has directed its response to Islamic Jihad. It is widely believed that Hamas holds a strong position in the enclave, such that no rival group would fire on Israel without the tacit consent of the ruling group.

The last time rockets were fired toward Israel from the coastal enclave was on January 1, 2022. At that time, no sirens sounded as the two rockets landed in the sea off the Tel Aviv coast. Nonetheless, the IDF responded with a series of airstrikes on Hamas targets.

Sirens sounded in the town of Nahal Oz on Sunday afternoon in what the IDF said was a false alarm.

Violent clashes have erupted between Palestinians and police on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in recent days, injuring dozens of Palestinians and several police officers.

Hamas and other Gaza-based terrorist groups have repeatedly labeled the holy site’s focal point as the red line. Police action to quell unrest there over the past year was one of the triggers of an 11-day war in the Gaza Strip last May.

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