Israeli army war planes carried out airstrikes over Khan Yunis,
Gaza Strip on August 16, 2020. – The Israeli army said it carried
out fresh air strikes against Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip on
August 16, in response to firebombs sent into Israeli territory
attached to balloons. (Photo by SAID KHATIB / AFP)
Israel’s army launched new airstrikes Sunday against
Hamas positions in Gaza and closed the fishing zone around the
Palestinian enclave in response to rockets and firebombs sent into
Israeli territory.
The measures came after a week of heightened tensions, including
clashes on Saturday evening along the Gaza-Israeli border, the army
said.
Dozens of Palestinian “rioters burned tyres, hurled explosive
devices and grenades towards the security fence and attempted to
approach it,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a
statement.
Long simmering Palestinian anger has flared further since Israel
and the UAE on Thursday agreed to normalise relations, a move
Palestinians saw as a betrayal of their cause by the Gulf
country.
Over the past week, Israeli forces have carried out repeated
night-time strikes on targets linked to the Islamist group Hamas,
which controls the Gaza Strip.
The army says they were carried out in response to makeshift
firebombs attached to balloons and kites which have been sent into
southern Israel, causing thousands of fires on Israeli farms and
communities.
There were 19 such Palestinian attacks on Saturday alone,
according to Israeli rescue services.
In response, “IDF fighter jets and aircraft struck a number of
Hamas military targets in the Gaza Strip,” the army said, adding
that among the targets hit were a Hamas “military compound and
underground infrastructure”.
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Early Sunday the IDF said two nore rockets had been fired into
Israel from Gaza and intercepted by its Iron Dome defence
system.
“In response, our Air Force just struck Hamas terror targets in
Gaza, including a military compound used to store rocket
ammunition,” it said.
– Total fishing ban –
Following rocket and incendiary balloon attacks earlier this
week, Israel on Wednesday slashed Gaza’s permitted coastal fishing
zone from 15 nautical miles to eight, a punitive move often used by
the Jewish state in response to Gaza unrest.
Following Saturday’s clashes and rocket-fire, Israel’s military
decided “to entirely shut down the fishing zone of the Gaza Strip,
immediately and until further notice, starting this morning
(Sunday),” a military statement said.
Israel has also closed its Kerem Shalom goods crossing with the
Gaza Strip.
Despite a truce last year backed by the UN, Egypt and Qatar, the
two sides clash sporadically with rockets, mortar fire or
incendiary balloons.
The Gaza Strip has a population of two million, more than half
of whom live in poverty, according to the World Bank.
The IDF said Hamas “is responsible for all events transpiring in
the Gaza Strip and emanating from it, and will bear the
consequences for terror activity against Israeli civilians”.
AFP
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