Israel suddenly airstrikes Hamas weapons production facility in Gaza Strip
(Baonghean.vn) - The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that at midnight on May 16-17, it conducted a series of airstrikes on Hamas "terrorist targets" in the northern Gaza Strip, in retaliation for several houses in the Israeli city of Sderot being hit by bullets, apparently fired from across the border.
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| The Israel Defense Forces have carried out a series of airstrikes against Hamas “terrorist targets” in the northern Gaza Strip. Photo: AP |
An IDF statement said the airstrikes targeted “terrorist targets belonging to the Hamas Islamic Movement,” including four Hamas military bases and three sites belonging to a weapons factory. There were no reports of casualties from the strikes.
Israel said the move was in response to the southern Israeli city of Sderot being hit by a barrage of gunfire from Gaza, including heavy machine gun fire, which hit several residential buildings but caused no casualties.
According to a statement from the city of Sderot, the gunfire from Gaza was aimed at shooting down a military plane in the sky, and the bullets hit houses as they fell. After the machine gun fire hit houses in Sderot, Israeli troops on the border were hit near the southern Gaza Strip.
In response, an Israeli tank destroyed two Hamas observation posts in southern Gaza. The Israeli military stressed: “The IDF considers this incident serious and Hamas must be held responsible for everything that happens in the Gaza Strip.”
Over two days (May 14 and 15), more than 40,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip participated in an "unprecedented" riot along the security fence on the Gaza-Israel border, to protest the US decision to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
More than 60 Palestinians were killed and more than 2,700 injured by bullets and tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers. This is considered the bloodiest day of conflict between Israel and Palestine since the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip in 2014.