Army says naval facility and other ‘terror infrastructure’ struck overnight in response to missile that slammed into yeshiva building.
By TOI STAFF Today, 1:38 am
Israel planes carried out multiple airstrikes in the Gaza Strip early Friday, hours after a rocket hit a religious school in southern Israel.
The Israeli military said in a statement that fighter jets and other aircraft attacked “several terror targets, including terror infrastructure in military compounds.”
It said it also hit a naval base belonging to the Hamas terror group.
“The attack was carried out in response to the rocket that was shot from the Gaza Strip earlier this evening,” the army said.
A video released by the military showed a number of strikes on unspecified targets.
The Hamas-linked Shehab news agency said there were three strikes on a naval facility near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, causing damage.
It said sites east of Gaza City were also attacked.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The strikes came hours after a rocket launched from Gaza slammed into a building housing a religious school, causing damage but no injuries. The rocket, which did not explode, struck the outer face of the yeshiva, sending debris onto the sidewalk. A number of tempered-glass windows were also broken.
Most students had gone home for the weekend, but several people were still inside the school at the time.
A Jewish religious school that was hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in the southern town of Sderot on June 13, 2019. (Yediot Mehashetach)
On early Thursday morning, a rocket launched from Gaza at the southern community of Nirim was intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system.
Politicians and others called for a major military operation after the attack, including assassinating leaders of Hamas.
No Palestinian group has taken responsibility for the attacks, but the military generally holds Hamas responsible for any violence emanating from the enclave.
After the first rocket attack, Israeli aircraft bombed a Hamas underground facility in the southern Gaza Strip.
Tensions with Gaza have been steadily rising in recent days, with Israel blocking Gazan fishermen from access to the sea in response to incendiary balloons being launched over the border on Wednesday.
The tensions have threatened to undo an unofficial ceasefire brokered after a major flare-up in early May in which the sides exchanged the most intense fire in years, leading to the deaths of four Israelis and 29 Gazans. Gazans say Israel has been slow in implementing parts of the deal.
Source: The Times of Israel