Violent Escalation between Gaza and Israel: Rockets Fired and Targets Hit

The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told the Chief of National Security Staff, Tzachi Hanegbi, and the heads of local authorities in the southern region, that he had instructed the army to prepare for the possibility of expanding the current military campaign and launching “harsh blows” on Gaza, according to the BBC correspondent in Jerusalem. .

On Wednesday evening, the Israeli government approved the request of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to expand the state of emergency in the wake of the security situation, to include residential communities located up to eighty kilometers from the Gaza border, according to the Israeli Broadcasting Authority.

Palestinians said that the exchange of shelling began with several loud explosions in southern Gaza, which led to the rise of large columns of smoke.

The Israeli military said that an aircraft targeted Islamic Jihad operatives who were riding in a vehicle carrying a missile launcher hidden in the Khan Yunis area.

The army announced that it had begun attacking Islamic Jihad’s underground missile launchers across the region in order to thwart planned attacks.

And Palestinian media reported that strikes targeted Gaza City, the northern town of Beit Lahiya, and the southern town of Rafah.

The joint operations room of the armed factions in Gaza, which includes the Islamic Jihad and Hamas, claimed responsibility for firing the rockets.

“The damage to the homes of civilians and faction fighters is a red line, and we will respond to it forcefully. The resistance forces are ready for all options,” the statement said.

According to Israeli medical sources and the Israel Broadcasting Corporation, several Israelis were injured as a result of rocket fire from Gaza. They are currently being treated at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon.

The Israeli army announced that Sderot and the surrounding Gaza Strip, Ashkelon, Ashdod and Tel Aviv were targeted by missiles originating from the Gaza Strip.

A video clip showed the Israeli Minister of Transportation, Miri Regev, as she descended into one of the shelters in Ashdod, after the sirens sounded.

And the Israeli Channel 12 reported that the southern region in Israel was subjected to heavy bursts of rockets, and the channel confirmed that damage was caused to a house in the city of Sderot, adjacent to the border with the Gaza Strip, and there were no reports of injuries.

The Israeli army spokesman, Daniel Hijri, said that preparations must be made to continue the fighting, stressing that: “The campaign is not over.”

According to Israeli radio, Iron Dome successfully intercepted more than 90% of the rockets, adding that the Islamic Jihad movement failed to launch 30% of the rockets that landed in the Gaza Strip.

On Wednesday morning, the Israeli army carried out attacks on missile launchers and warehouses belonging to the Islamic Jihad Movement in Gaza.

The Israeli army spokesman for the Arab media, Avichai Adraee, published that the Israeli bombing targeted sites of the Islamic Jihad movement throughout the Gaza Strip.

And the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that the total number of dead has reached 21, and 64 injured as a result of the continuous Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip since dawn on Tuesday.

The Israeli army launched, at dawn on Tuesday, a military operation under the name “The Defensive Arrow”, which resulted in killing fifteen people, including three Islamic Jihad leaders, and injuring 20 people, including women and children.

The delegates of the member states of the Arab League condemned what they described as aggression, blockade and Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people and called on the International Criminal Court to complete the investigation into what they described as war crimes committed by Israel.

In a statement issued at the conclusion of their emergency meeting at the headquarters of the League of Arab States in Cairo today, the delegates expressed their solidarity with the Palestinian people and support for their steadfastness in the face of Israeli aggressions and their legitimate right to self-defence.

The delegates of the member states of the Arab League also called on the UN Security Council to assume its responsibilities in maintaining international peace and security, and to exert the necessary pressure on Israel, as the occupying power, to stop its aggression and siege imposed on the Palestinian people, which violates international law, as described in the statement.