The Palestinian terror group Islamic Jihad fired a rocket barrage on Israel as Israeli tanks ventured deeper into Gaza. Islamic Jihad, an ally of Hamas – both of whom are backed by Iran – said its fighters fired rockets towards several Israeli communities near the fence with Gaza in response to “the crimes of the Zionist enemy against our Palestinian people”. Israel entered Gaza after Hamas targeted Israeli civilians in small communities and killed mostly unarmed civilians as they unleashed a terror campaign.
The volley of about 20 rockets caused no casualties, the Israeli military said. But the attack showed militants still possess rocket capabilities almost nine months into an offensive that Israel says is aimed at neutralising threats against it. Residents of several neighbourhoods in eastern Khan Younis, which is in southern Gaza, said they had received audio messages from Israeli phone numbers ordering them to leave their homes.
Some suggested this could mean Israeli forces will return to the area, which they left several weeks ago. The Israeli military said in a statement earlier on Monday the rockets were fired from the Khan Younis area. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was nearing its goal of taking out the military capabilities of Hamas, the Islamist group that governs Gaza and led the Oct. 7 assault on Israel that sparked the war. Less intense operations would continue, he said.
Violence also flared on Monday in the West Bank, where the Palestinian health ministry said a woman and a boy were killed in the city of Tulkarm during an operation by Israeli forces. A day earlier, an Israeli strike in the same area killed an Islamic Jihad member. In some parts of Gaza, militants continue to stage attacks on Israeli forces in areas that the army had left months ago. Israeli tanks deepened incursions into the Shejaia suburb of eastern Gaza City for a fifth day, and tanks advanced further in western and central Rafah, in southern Gaza near the border with Egypt, residents said.
The Israeli military said it had killed a number of militants in combat in Shejaia on Monday and found large amounts of weapons there. Hamas said its fighters had lured an Israeli force into a booby-trapped house in the east of Rafah and blown it up, causing casualties. The Israeli military announced that a soldier had died in a booby-trapped house in southern Gaza, perhaps a reference to Islamic Jihad’s claims. 317 Israeli soldiers have been killed in action since the operations began.
