Israeli airstrikes target Hamas in Gaza in response to rocket attacks

Israeli airstrikes targeted Hamas positions in Gaza overnight in response to rockets fired from the Strip. 

The first rocket was launched at 5:30 PM, activating sirens in the city of Sderot, and then again at around 2:40 AM overnight.

The Israeli army issued a statement shortly after the second rocket firing, saying “IDF fighter jets struck a raw chemical material production, preservation and storage site used by the rocket production line belonging to the Hamas Terrorist Organisation and a weapon manufacturing site, both located in central Gaza Strip.”

The mayor of Sderot said the response wasn’t hard enough, calling on the government to assassinate the leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

A video circulated on social media seemingly coming from Gaza, showing rockets and a text in Arabic saying “The female prisoners are a red line,” referring to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Israeli media reported in recent days that the Israel Prison Service have taken measures against some of the Palestinian inmates, including females, after they apparently celebrated the terror attacks in East Jerusalem over the weekend, which left seven people killed outside a synagogue.

National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir has repeatedly promised to crack down on Palestinian inmates as well as seeking the death penalty for terrorists.

“The (rocket) fire from Gaza will not stop me from continuing to work to abolish the summer camp conditions of murderous terrorists. I give my full support to the Prisons Service to go into the (prison) wings and restore order,” Ben-Gvir said on Wednesday after the first rocket was fired.

Wednesday’s attack marks the second time that rockets have been fired from Gaza in a week.

Rockets were fired at Israel last Thursday following an Israeli army raid in the West Bank city of Jenin, which left nine Palestinians killed, including several Islamic Jihad members and a 61-year-old woman.

The far-right coalition parties, Religious Zionism and Jewish Power, have been widely criticised in recent days over its failure to make do on its election campaign promises to bring back security and stability.

Both Religious Zionism and Jewish Power ridiculed the previous government led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid for failing to stop rocket attacks from Gaza as well as Palestinian terror attacks, calling it “weak” and “surrendering” to Hamas.

Within the first month of being in power, at least two terror attacks against Israelis and two separate firings of rockets from Gaza have taken place under its watch.