The head of Hamas’ armed wing announced on Saturday the launch of an operation called “Al-Aqsa Flood” against Israel, while thousands of rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory.
The shooting, which emanated from several locations in the Gaza Strip, began around 6:30 a.m. on Saturday.
“We have decided to put an end to all crimes of the occupation” (Israel, editor’s note), and since this morning “more than 5,000 rockets” have been fired, explains Mohammad Deif, commander of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades. in an audio recording broadcast by Al-Aqsa TV, the television channel of Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules Gaza.
In Israel, warning sirens sounded in several cities around the Palestinian territory, but also deeper in the area, in the north and east, according to the army.
A woman in her 60s was killed “by a direct hit”, 15 other people were injured in southern Israel, says Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross, while hundreds of rockets have been fired since early morning in the Gaza Strip.
In May, Israel launched an offensive against Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, triggering a five-day war between the Israeli army, Islamic Jihad and other armed groups in the territory that left 34 Palestinians and one Israeli dead.
More than a thousand rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel, most of which were intercepted by the Israeli air defense system. Israel, for its part, had increased air strikes on the small area.