Israeli planes attacked underground “military installations” in the Gaza Strip, in response to the firing of rockets from that Palestinian enclave against its territory, Israel reported.
On Thursday night, the Israeli army and local sources reported the firing of rockets from Gaza, the first since August and 48 hours after the electoral victory of former Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu with his party, Likud, in alliance with sectors of the right. religious and ultranationalist.
Hours before the rockets, at least four Palestinians were reported killed in different episodes by Israeli forces, two of them in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied Palestinian West Bank.
The Presidency of the Palestinian Authority accused Israel of the uptick in violence and warned that it could lead to a point of no return
After the launches, “the Israeli army attacked an underground military rocket production site” of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, the armed forces reported in a statement collected by the AFP news agency.
Security sources in Gaza reported that there were a dozen attacks on two “military sites” in the center of this enclave of 2.3 million people, subject to an Israeli blockade since 2007.
For its part, the Presidency of the Palestinian Authority accused Israel of the uptick in violence and warned that it could lead to “a point of no return” with “devastating consequences for all.”
“We hold the Government of Israel accountable for the uptick in tensions on the ground against the Palestinian people and call on the US Administration to implement what it has committed to and act immediately to pressure Israel to stop its crimes against the Palestinian population,” said the spokesman for the Palestinian Presidency, Nabil abu Rudeina, quoted by the Palestinian agency Wafa.
“It is not acceptable to allow the occupation to buy time to achieve its goals of destroying the Palestinian national project,” he said.
For his part, the Palestinian Prime Minister, Muhamad Shtaye, denounced the “collective punishment” imposed by the Israeli authorities against Palestinian cities and towns within the framework of their security operations, something that, he warned, “will not be accepted or tolerated.”
Shtayé, who on Thursday traveled to the West Bank city of Nablusa together with a group of foreign ambassadors, reiterated his call to the international community to guarantee protection to the population, apply the relevant United Nations resolutions and “stop the occupation and their crimes.”
“The international community sends a message to stop the murder of our children and the message of our people is one of peace, of the search for a better tomorrow that passes through the end of the occupation,” said the president, according to Europa Press.
Security sources in Gaza reported that there were a dozen attacks on two “military sites” in the center of this enclave of 2.3 million inhabitants.
On Thursday, hours before the exchange of rockets began, the United States called for an “urgent de-escalation” of tensions.
The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, communicated with the outgoing Prime Minister, Yair Lapid, to congratulate him on the “free and fair elections” that had been carried out and took advantage of the contact to express his concern about the “growing tensions” with the Palestinians, according to a State Department statement quoted by AFP.
Blinken expressed “deep concern about the situation in the West Bank, including rising tensions, violence and loss of Israeli and Palestinian lives, and underscored the need for all parties to urgently de-escalate.”
The West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, is experiencing its deadliest period in years at the same time that as a result of the elections, the next one could be the most right-wing and ultra-nationalist government in Israel’s history.
Israeli military operations in that occupied Palestinian territory are almost daily, usually accompanied by clashes and deaths of Palestinians.
