Israel bombed the Gaza Strip after Palestinian fighters fired several missiles from the besieged coastal territory. This comes in response to an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.
The Israeli warplanes carried out bombing raids against the Hamas terror group in the north of Gaza City as stated by the military. During the early-morning strikes on Thursday, black smoke was seen rising over one of the targeted locations.
Gaza Strip
As per Ahmad Aswad, the head nurse of the cardiology section, the city’s Najah Hospital was overrun by the influx of injured people.
According to the reports by the Israel Defense Forces, a Hamas weapons factory in the center of Gaza and an unidentified military facility in the northern portion of the Strip, where the organization kept naval weapons, were targeted by the fighter jets.
The burst of rockets that were fired toward Israel triggered sirens in several cities and towns near Gaza, including Nir Am, Gevim, Ashkelon, Sderot, Ivim, and Or Haner.
The flare-up comes after Israeli troops entered Nablus’ Old City on Wednesday to apprehend several wanted Palestinians. As a result of the fierce clashes that followed, 102 individuals were injured with 11 deaths.
After the raid, a 66-year-old male died from tear gas inhalation. Several Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the year’s commencement, making this one of the deadliest confrontations between Israelis and Palestinians in recent times.
The violence occurs in the first few weeks of the new far-right administration in Israel, which has vowed to take a tough stance against the Palestinians and pledged to hasten settlement construction on lands sought by the Palestinians for their future state.
While the militant Hamas group in Gaza claimed its patience was “running out,” Israeli officers said they were on high alert. Another militant organization, Islamic Jihad, vowed to strike back.
Police were stepping up security in sensitive locations as Israel prepared for retaliation. A Palestinian had opened fire and killed seven individuals outside an east Jerusalem synagogue in January, a day after a raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank that left 10 Palestinians dead.
In protest of the raid, a strike was called throughout the West Bank that led to the closure of businesses, shops, schools, and colleges. In Gaza, schools and colleges were suspended.
The Israeli force claimed it entered Nablus, the commercial hub of the West Bank, to detain three militants believed to be responsible for earlier shooting incidents. In connection with the murder of an Israeli soldier last autumn, the main suspect was wanted.
