GAZA CITY (Palestinian Territories): Barrages of rockets were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip at dawn Saturday as militants from the blockaded Palestinian enclave infiltrated Israel, with at least one person killed, the army and medics said. Rockets streamed across the sky repeatedly after the first launches from multiple locations across the Palestinian territory from 06.30 am (0330 GMT), AFP journalists in Gaza City reported.
The flare-up follows months of surging violence in the IsraeliPalestinian conflict, with fatalities in the occupied West Bank hitting a scale not seen in years.
Air raid sirens wailed across southern and central Israel, with the army urging the people to stay near bomb shelters.
AFP journalists in Jerusalem heard multiple rockets being intercepted, with sirens blaring across the city on more occasions than in any Gaza conflict in the past three years.
The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas said it was behind the aerial assault, claiming its militants had launched more than 5,000 rockets.
“We decided to put an end to all the crimes of the occupation (Israel), their time for rampaging without being held accountable is over,” the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said.
“We announce Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and we fired, in the first strike of 20 minutes, more than 5,000 rockets.”
Hundreds of residents fled their homes in eastern Gaza to move away from the border with Israel, an AFP correspondent said. Men, women and children were seen carrying blankets and food items as they left their homes, mostly in the northeastern part of the Palestinian territory, the reporter said. Israel’s military said Hamas launched “massive shooting of rockets”, while at the same time “terrorists infiltrated into Israeli territory in a number of different locations”.
Hamas “will face the consequences and responsibility for these events”, it said in a statement.
The Palestinian militant group said its fighters seized an Israeli tank, a claim the army did not immediately comment on when contacted by AFP.
A woman in her 60s was killed “due to a direct hit” in Israel, the Magen David Adom emergency services said. Fifteen others were wounded, two of them seriously, medics said. An AFP photographer in the coastal city of Tel Aviv saw a gaping hole in a building, with residents gathered outside.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would shortly convene security chiefs over the violence. Hamas called on “the resistance fighters in the West Bank” as well as “our Arab and Islamic nations” to join the battle, in a statement posted on Telegram.
Israel has imposed a crippling blockade on Gaza since 2007 after Hamas took power. Palestinian militants and Israel have fought several devastating wars since. The latest violence follows a period of heightened tensions in September, when Israel closed the border to Gazan workers for two weeks.
The shutdown of the crossing came as Palestinian protest rocked the heavily militarised border. Demonstrators had resorted to burning tyres and throwing rocks and petrol bombs at Israeli troops, who have responded with tear gas and live bullets. Resuming workers’ passage on September 28 had raised hopes of calming the situation in Gaza, home to 2.3 million people. – AFP
