GAZA CITY – Flames rise from the area after Israeli warplanes conducted air strikes on the central part of the Gaza Strip, on April 7, 2023.
Anadolu agent | Anadolu agent | beautiful pictures
The Israeli military attacked sites in Lebanon and Gaza early on Friday, in retaliation for missile attacks it blamed on the Islamist group Hamas, as tensions followed police raids. this week entering the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem risks spiraling out of control.
Huge explosions have rocked different parts of Gaza, as Israel said its jets hit 10 targets including tunnels and weapons production and development sites. Hamas, which controls the southern coastal strip, is blocked off.
At around 4 a.m., the military said it also attacked three Hamas infrastructure targets in southern Lebanon, where residents around the Rashidiyeh refugee camp area near the southern city of Tire reported three big Bang.
Hamas said: “We strongly condemn this flagrant Zionist aggression against Lebanon in the vicinity of Tire this morning.
Two Lebanese security sources said the strike hit a small structure on farmland near the area where the missile was launched earlier.
According to Reuters witnesses, the strike appeared to have left a large crater in farmland to the south.
A member of Lebanon’s Civil Defense at the scene on Friday morning said there were no casualties.
The attacks came in response to missile attacks from Lebanon on areas of northern Israel, which Israeli officials blamed on Hamas. The military said 34 rockets were launched from Lebanon, 25 of which were intercepted by air defense systems. It was the largest attack since 2006, when Israel waged war on the powerful armed movement Hezbollah.
“Israel’s response, tonight and then, will cost our enemies dearly,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after a security cabinet meeting.
As Israeli jets struck in Gaza, volleys of rockets were fired in response and sirens sounded in Israeli towns and cities in border areas.
However, there were no reports of serious casualties and only one missile hit its target, damaging a house in the southern town of Sderot.
The cross-border attacks come amid an escalating confrontation following Israeli police raids on the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, this year. coincides with the Jewish holiday of Passover.
Hamas said in a statement: “We hold the Zionist occupation fully responsible for the serious escalation and flagrant aggression towards the Gaza Strip and for its consequences. will do to the region”.
Although Israel blamed Hamas for Thursday’s attack, which took place while Hamas head Ismail Haniyeh was visiting Lebanon, security experts say Hezbollah, the powerful Shi’ite group, helps its main enemy. Israel is Iran to project its power across the region, must get their permission.
Tamir Hayman, a former director of Israeli military intelligence, wrote on Twitter: “It wasn’t Hezbollah that opened fire, but it’s hard to believe that Hezbollah didn’t know about it.”
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati issued a statement condemning any military activity from his territory that threatens stability but there was no immediate comment from Hezbollah. Earlier on Thursday, before the missiles were fired, Hashem Safieddine, a senior Hezbollah official, said any breach of Al-Aqsa “will set the whole area on fire”.
UNIFIL, the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, said it had been in contact with the parties and said both sides said they were not seeking war but said the situation risked escalation and call on all parties to cease action.
An Israeli military spokesman said the Israeli operation was over for now. “Nobody wants to escalate tensions right now,” he told reporters. “Silence will be answered by quiet, at this stage, I think, at least in the coming hours.”
US condemns missile attacks
Palestinian factions in Lebanon, with a presence in refugee camps, have sporadically opened fire on Israel in the past. But the border area has been largely quiet since the 2006 war with Hezbollah.
The US State Department condemned the rocket launch from Lebanon and previous attacks from Gaza and said Israel has the right to defend itself.
But it also expressed concern about scenes in the Al-Aqsa mosque, where Israeli police were filmed beating worshipers in raids that officials said were meant to dislodge youth groups. youth were entrenched inside the mosque.
The Al-Aqsa complex in Jerusalem’s Old City is Islam’s third holiest site, where hundreds of thousands of people pray during Ramadan. Referred to by Jews as the Temple Mount, the site of two Jewish temples in the Bible, it is also Judaism’s holiest site, although non-Muslims are not allowed to pray there.
It has long been a hotbed for stress. Clashes there in 2021 sparked a 10-day war between Israel and Gaza.
There has been widespread anger among Palestinians in the West Bank and occupied Gaza over police actions as well as condemnation from across the Arab world.
Late Thursday, police said there were also disturbances in several Arab cities in Israel itself, including Umm el-Fahem, Sakhnin and Nazareth.
Smokes
The worsening security situation adds trouble to Mr Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist government, which has faced mass protests over now-suspended plans to restrict powers of the Supreme Court.
However, opposition leader Yair Lapid said the government can count on support after the missile attack and Mr Netanyahu said the Israelis were behind the security forces.
“Internal debate in Israel will not prevent us from taking action against them wherever and whenever necessary. We are all, without exception, united on this,” he said. Netanyahu said.
Following Thursday’s missile attack, television footage showed large plumes of smoke rising above the northern Israeli border town of Shlomi, with cars destroyed in the streets. Israel’s airport authority said it had closed the northern airports in Haifa and Rosh Pina.
“I’m shaking, I’m shocked,” Liat Berkovitch Kravitz told Israel’s Channel 12 news channel, speaking from a fortified room in her home in Shlomi. “I heard an explosion, as if it were exploding in the room.”
The Israeli military said mortar rounds were also fired across the border.
Amid concerns that the confrontation could escalate further after a year of increasing violence between Israel and Palestine, the United Nations Security Council held a closed-door meeting to discuss the crisis.
“It’s important for everyone to do what they can to defuse tensions,” Deputy US Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood told reporters en route to the meeting.
Thursday’s attack followed several rocket launches towards Israel from Gaza, most of which were intercepted. Israel responded to the launches with airstrikes on sites linked to Hamas, which it says is responsible for any attacks from the blockaded coastal strip.
Speaking from Gaza, Mohammad Al-Braim, a spokesman for the Palestinian People’s Resistance Committee, praised the missile attacks from Lebanon, which he attributed to the Al-Aqsa incidents, but take no responsibility.
He said “no Arab and no Muslim can remain silent while (Al-Aqsa) is being raided in such a barbaric and barbaric manner that the enemy does not pay the price of aggression. mine.”
