Gaza rockets have resumed. Spent Palestinian rocket. Illustrative. By Joshua Spurlock
Just two weeks after Israel foiled an Iranian drone attack plot, Gaza terrorists launched their own drone attack and bombed an Israeli military vehicle on Saturday. In response, Israel struck multiple Hamas targets. The incident follows the firing of multiple rockets at Israel from Gaza on Friday, with a report from The Times of Israel that Egyptian mediators were in the Gaza Strip seeking to deescalate the situation.
IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus reported via Twitter on Saturday that Gaza terrorists “apparently tried to attack IDF soldiers with an IED dropped from a small drone flown over from Gaza. No injuries, slight damage to vehicle. Probably same type of drone used for photography.” In response, per posts to the IDF Twitter feed, Israel struck the terror squad “responsible for launching the drone” as well as “a number of Hamas targets, including offensive naval equipment and 2 military compounds in Gaza. We hold Hamas responsible.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in comments released by his office on Sunday, said of Israel’s counterstrikes, “We are acting vigorously against any attempt to harm our citizens and soldiers. Just like we showed again last night, we will not tolerate any attempted aggression against us and we will maintain the security of Israel.”
The situation with Gaza heated up during the latest round of Gaza riots at the Israel border on Friday. The Times of Israel reported the IDF termed Friday’s riots “especially violent” and Hamas claimed on Twitter that two teenagers were killed by Israel in the conflict.
That night, the IDF reported that five rockets were launched from Gaza at Israel, tweeting that “in response, we just struck a number of Hamas targets in northern Gaza.”
Conricus lamented that the Israeli actions of self-defense may not be viewed that way by biased entities in the news media. He tweeted, “Now that @IDF has struck back at #Hamas targets in Gaza after 5 rockets were fired at Israeli civilians an hour ago, most of the international media will probably report: ‘Israeli military strikes Gaza’. Go figure the logic behind that.”
Netanyahu was updated regularly on the situation on Saturday, with a separate press release from his office quoting him as saying, “Hamas is responsible for all aggression originating from Gazan territory. Any attempt to harm either our civilians or our soldiers will be met with a vigorous response.”
Gaza terrorists have been shooting rockets at Israel for years, a conflict exacerbated by the Hamas takeover of the Strip in 2007. Since then, Israel has fought multiple counterterror wars with Gaza militants in an effort to restore calm.
On Sunday, Netanyahu acknowledged the perseverance of those Israelis living under fire from Gaza. “I would like to take this opportunity to again express appreciation for the steadfast stand by the residents of the south and the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip,” said Netanyahu. “They allow us the room in which to take action and fight our enemies in the correct manner.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, September 8, 2019)