Israel strikes Gaza after rocket attacks

On Jan 2, 2022

Israel’s military said it launched air attacks on Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip, a day after rockets fired from Gaza landed in the Mediterranean Sea.

The Israeli military said the attacks late on Saturday hit a rocket manufacturing facility and a military post for Hamas.

“As fireworks lit up the skies to celebrate NewYear2022 around the world, a different type of fire came from Gaza-terrorist rocket-fire toward Israel,” the Israel military said.

“In response, we just struck Hamas sites in Gaza, including a rocket manufacturing site & military posts used for terrorist activity.”

It was not clear whether the rockets from Gaza were meant to hit Israel, but Gaza-based groups often test-fire missiles towards the sea.

There were no reports of casualties from Saturday’s attack. No sirens were sounded and Israel’s Iron Dome rocket interception system did not deploy, the army said in a statement.

Hamas says Israel did not take serious steps to ease the blockade it imposed on Gaza with Egypt’s help when the group seized control of the coastal enclave in 2007.

More than 260 Palestinians, many of them civilians and children, and 13 Israelis were killed in the May assault on Gaza, during which Israel carried out relentless air raids across the coastal enclave, prompting Gaza fighters to fire rockets towards Israeli cities.

Israel keeps Gaza under blockade, tightly restricting movement out of the territory that is home to two million Palestinians. Egypt also maintains restrictions on the enclave. Both cite threats from Hamas for the restrictions.

The blockade restricts the movement of goods and people in and out of Gaza and has ravaged the territory’s economy and harmed the population of two million.

Kamila/Al-Jazeera