Israel launches attack on Gaza

(Patria) - The Israeli army announced that it has begun attacks on Hamas targets in Gaza, after a rocket attack on Israel was carried out from the blockaded strip in the morning.

Israeli army spokesperson Avichay Adraee stated that the attacks aim to destroy Hamas positions, Al Jazeera reported.

According to the Ministry of Information of Gaza, Israeli air force airstrikes are targeting the northern part of the Gaza Strip, while the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Ashraf al-Qudrah, stated that hospitals and clinics in the strip are ready to receive potential casualties of the attacks.

 

#Gaza #GazaUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/5bj4oQonfb

— Az (@AzTheBaz) March 25, 2019

 

The Ministry of Health also called on the public to take all precautionary measures.

Al Jazeera reporter Harry Fawcett, reporting from the Gaza-Israel border, said that Israeli officials issued similar warnings to residents on the Israeli side.

One building destroyed

"We see several clouds of smoke over Gaza, and confirmation is coming that the Israeli army has begun strikes. Within a 40-kilometer radius around the border, Israeli officials have called for shelters to be opened, due to a possible counter-attack from Gaza," he said, adding:

"From our colleagues in Gaza, we hear that the strikes so far have been carried out on empty training grounds associated with Hamas's military wing, as well as on a naval base."

Somewhat later, Fawcett reported that a building in a densely populated area of the city was "completely destroyed."

Ambulances were seen at the scene.

When asked if Hamas was responsible for launching the rocket towards Israel, organization spokesperson Abdullatif al-Kanoo told Al Jazeera:

"The Israelis continue the blockade of Gaza and practice all kinds of aggression against Palestinians. Therefore, the Israeli occupation must bear the consequences. Hamas will not abandon its people."

He condemned the Israeli response.

"The current bombing of the Gaza Strip reflects their criminal nature. The Palestinian resistance will not allow the occupier to oppress our people."

Hamas political leader Ismail Haniya called on Palestinians to unite in response to the Israeli attack.

"Palestinians are oppressed on many fronts – in Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, as well as in Israeli prisons. We must confront this massacre united, in cooperation with our Arab allies," he said.

Israel blames Hamas for the attack

At the beginning of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and shortly after the start of the Israeli attack on Gaza, US President Donald Trump said that a future Middle East peace deal must include Israel's right to self-defense.

Earlier, United Nations envoy for the Middle East Nikolaj Mladenov condemned the rocket attack on Israel carried out from the Gaza Strip, in which seven people were injured, calling it "absolutely unacceptable."

Mladenov tweeted that the UN and Egyptian mediators are working intensively with both sides, but that "the situation is still tense," AP reported.

Egypt's and the UN's efforts for a ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas movement have yielded results in the past and stopped violence.

The rocket attack from the Gaza Strip was carried out on Monday morning, and in that attack, a house in Mismeret, north of the city of Kfar Saba, was hit, and seven people were injured, including a baby, two children, and two women.

The Israeli army had previously blamed the Palestinian movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, for the attack.