Israel bombs 29 sites in Gaza

Updated at 9:45 am: Israel bombed 29 targets in the Gaza Strip late Wednesday, the occupation forces said, after Palestinian fighters in the coastal territory fired 60 rockets over the Gaza frontier in the heaviest such barrage since 2012.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the military “to take any action necessary to restore calm” to cities in the proximity of Gaza’s rocket fire, and that “if there is no quiet in the south then it will be noisy in Gaza, and that’s an understatement.”

The rocket fire, which police said resulted in no casualties, was claimed by the Islamic Jihad group in retaliation for the killing of three of its members in a Gaza air strike the previous day.

A military spokesman said 60 rockets hit cities “in a simultaneous coordinated attack,” and five landed in built-up areas.

Commenting on Wednesday’s barrage, Islamic Jihad said it had fired 90 rockets towards Israel and named the operation “Breaking the Silence.”

Israel bombed 29 militant targets in response, he said.

Israeli occupation forces fired tank shells at what the spokesman described as “two terrorist locations” in Gaza.

Israeli warplanes bombed five military training camps, Palestinian officials and witnesses said.

There were no immediate reports from the Palestinian enclave of any casualties.

Hamas personnel, including its military wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, had earlier evacuated all their bases, Gaza security sources said.

In response to the Israeli attacks, Gaza fighters launched more rockets on Thursday. An Israeli military spokeswoman told AFP that militants had fired five rockets but only one struck Israeli territory, causing no harm or damage.

Earlier, an AFP photographer on the Israeli side of the Gaza border said all was quiet at daybreak.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas demanded that Israel halt its “escalation” in Gaza, his spokesman said.

The Palestinian leader called on Israel to “put an end to its military escalation in the besieged Gaza Strip,” Nabil Abu Rudeina said Thursday.

Palestinian officials said that after the rocket strikes, Israel had informed them that it was closing the Kerem Shalom crossing, through which goods pass into the besieged Gaza Strip, until further notice.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman threatened to reoccupy Gaza, from which Israeli withdrew all troops and settlers in summer 2005.

“Following an attack like this – a barrage of more than 50 rockets – there is no alternative to a full reoccupation of the entire Gaza Strip,” he told private Channel 2 television.

In Gaza, Islamic Jihad’s armed wing the Al-Quds Brigades issued a statement saying its bombardment would continue in response to Israel’s “aggression” in Tuesday’s air strike.

Hamas warned Israel against escalating the confrontation.

“We hold the occupation responsible, we warn of the consequences of any escalation and we reiterate that resistance is the right of the Palestinian people to defend itself,” said Ihab al-Ghassin, a spokesman for the Islamist movement Hamas, which governs Gaza.

Source: Al Akhbar