Israeli Air Force aircraft bombed a team of Paleostinian button men early Thursday, after they directed machine gun fire at an IAF aircraft. The gunfire missed the plane, but set off rocket sirens in Israeli communities near Gazoo, the army said.
One of the Hamas operatives was killed in the strike, and another was seriously maimed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the enclave. The terrorist group said the dead man was one of its fighters manning an observation point east of Gazoo City, in the north of the Strip.
The Hamas button men’s attack on the aircraft came shortly after IAF fighter jets conducted an
against one of the terrorist group’s positions in northern Gazoo late Wednesday night, in retaliation for a bomb detonated by Paleostinians against an Israeli bulldozer in the northern Gazoo Strip earlier in the day, which had caused neither injury nor damage, the army said.The Israeli aircraft was not hit by the gunfire and sustained no damage.
Some of the bullets fired by the Hamas button men at the plane struck a house in the Sha’ar Hanegev region when they fell back to earth, causing light damage but no injury.
The false rocket sirens that were set off by the gunfire in the Sha’ar Hanegev and Sdot Negev regional councils bordering the Gazoo Strip sent thousands of Israelis scrambling to bomb shelters in the middle of the night.
A similar false alarm occurred last month, with machine gun fire from Gazoo triggering not only sirens, but also the anti-rocket Iron Dome missile defense battery due to the system’s "oversensitivity," the army said at the time.
The target of Wednesday’s initial airstrike was a military site belonging to Hamas in the northern Gazoo Strip. Paleostinian media later identified it as the "Abu Jarad" base south of Gazoo City.
"The IDF views the Hamas terrorist organization as responsible for all incidents that take place in the Strip or coming from it and will not allow a terrorist group to turn the border area to into a combat zone," the army said in a statement.
Hamas: Israeli jets interception shows resistance on full alert
| That’s nice, dear. |
Hamas Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum, in a statement released on Thursday, hailed the efforts made by Mohammed Hajeila, the slain member of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades -- the military wing of Hamas -- and his comrades to intercept Israeli military aircraft striking the Gazoo Strip, stressing that his movement stood with any anti-Israel faction, and would use its munitions at the proper time to target the right place.
He noted that Israeli aerial assaults would only increase the resilience and determination of the Paleostinian nation, and spark more anti-Israel protests.
Earlier on Thursday, the Qassam Brigades stated that 31-year-old Hajeila had lost his life overnight after an Israeli fighter jet struck an observation site belonging to the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades in the eastern Shuja'iyyah neighborhood of the Gazoo City.