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Operation Protective Edge: Israel bombs Gaza in retaliation for rockets Operation Protective Edge: Israel bombs Gaza in retaliation for rockets
(about 1 hour later)
Israel launched an aerial offensive in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, bombing more than 30 targets including homes and calling it part of a campaign named Operation Protective Edge targeting Hamas militants firing rockets at Israeli targets. Israel launched what its military indicated could be a long-term offensive
The military urged Israelis within a 24-mile (40km) radius of the southern coastal territory to stay within reach of protected areas and ordered summer camps shut as a precaution against rocket fire. against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Tuesday,
Palestinian officials said Israel bombed more than 30 targets in little more than an hour before dawn, including two homes in southern Gaza, one of which was identified by a neighbour as belonging to a Hamas member. striking at least 50 sites in Gaza by air and sea and mobilising troops
Nine people suffered shrapnel injuries. There were no other reported casualties as the buildings were believed to have been evacuated beforehand. for a possible ground invasion in order to quell rocket attacks on
Witnesses said a house in Khan Younis was flattened. The Palestinian health ministry said nine neighbours were wounded by debris from that bombing. Israel.
The Palestinian interior ministry said the family in the targeted home had received a telephone call from an Israeli intelligence officer asking them to leave the house because it would be bombed, and the family evacuated in time. A military spokeswoman confirmed air strikes were launched but had no details. The army said its offensive, dubbed Operation Protective Edge, was
Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said in a tweet that "Operation Protective Edge is under way, targeting Hamas capabilities that are terrorising Israel". aimed at striking Hamas and ending the rocket fire that has intensified
Hamas's armed wing threatened an "earthquake" in response to Israel's attacks and said it had fired a rocket at a southern Israeli town. The Israeli army later said that eight more rockets and mortars were fired at in recent weeks amid tensions over the killing of three Israeli
Israel from Gaza starting shortly before midnight and into early teenagers and the apparent revenge murder of a Palestinian teenager.
Tuesday, and an additional rocket was intercepted above the Israeli town Nearly 300 rockets and mortars had been fired at Israel in recent
of Sderot, close to the border with Gaza. weeks, including a barrage of about 80 projectiles on Monday alone, the
In a statement the group denounced Israel's bombing of houses as "exceeding all red lines" and threatened to shoot rockets at longer distances. "We will respond by broadening the range of our targets," the militants said. army said. Israel has responded with dozens of air strikes and eight
Lerner said Gaza militants had fired more than 80 rockets at Israel on Monday and military officials said more than 200 rockets have been shot at Israel in the past month. Palestinian militants were killed on Monday. Israel had signalled it
Hamas said seven of its men were killed by an Israeli air strike early on Monday morning that struck a tunnel used by the group. would not launch a larger offensive if the militant group Hamas ceased
The surge in violence has raged since the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli youths last month in the occupied West Bank, and of a Palestinian teen last week in an attack for which Israel has arrested six Jewish suspects. the rocket fire.
"They chose the direction of escalation," said army spokesman Lieutenant
Peter Lerner. "So the mission will go on as long as we feel it is
necessary to carry it out. We don't expect it to be a short mission on
our behalf."
Among the 50 sites the army said it targeted early on Tuesday were four
houses belonging to militants, three militant compounds, 18 concealed
rocket launchers and other militant infrastructure sites. Most were
targeted in air strikes and three were attacked from the sea.
Gaza health official Ashraf Al-Kedra said at least nine Palestinian
civilians were brought to a Gaza hospital with light to moderate
injuries from the air strikes, including several who suffered shock.
He said some of the injured Palestinians were treated and released.
Lerner, the military spokesman, said the army would gradually increase
its attacks on Hamas in Gaza and was recruiting additional reservists
for a potential ground invasion of Gaza.
Hamas had amassed about 10,000 rockets including longer-range rockets
that can reach "up to Tel Aviv and beyond", Lerner said, adding that the
army was preparing for the possibility that Hamas would launch rockets
toward Israel's heartland and its commercial and cultural hub.
The army ordered hundreds of thousands of Israelis within a 40km (25 mile) radius of the Gaza Strip to stay indoors, including Israelis
in the major southern city of Beersheva, Lerner said.