Israeli Defence Minister discusses next steps in Rafah
They focused on the evacuation of civilians from Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip and the expansion of food and medicine deliveries, according to the government press office.
Israeli military aircraft carried out strikes in Gaza in the early hours of Thursday, hours after rocket fire toward the southern city of Ashkelon forced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt a campaign event and take cover.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said warplanes and helicopters struck several targets belonging to the Hamas terror group, “including the group’s military complexes”, adding that the strikes were in response to Wednesday’s rocket fire, The Times of Israel reported.
There were no immediate reports of casualties from Gazan authorities as the sites were empty.
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On Wednesday night, Palestinian terrorists broke a period of relative calm surrounding Gaza, firing a single rocket toward Ashkelon.
Netanyahu was in the middle of a campaign event in Ashkelon at the time and was forced to evacuate to a bomb shelter along with the dozens of supporters in the room.
The PM Netanyahu was referring to last month’s assassination of Baha Abu al-Ata, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror leader who Israel believes ordered the rocket attack in September.
No Palestinian group claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attack. Such sporadic launches of rockets and ensuing Israeli airstrikes have happened frequently despite an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire that ended two days of fighting in November.
Earlier in August, Israel struck Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip after a rocket attack on its territory.
Last week, it saw a series of mortar and rocket attacks, as well as several attempts by Palestinians to breach the border fence separating Israel and the Gaza Strip.
(With inputs from agency)
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