On Monday morning Israeli air forces carried out a series of strikes targeting sites inside the Gaza Strip and Syrian territories, Al-Arabi Al-Jadid news website reported.
The spokesperson for the Israeli occupation forces, Ovijaa Adraei, wrote on his Facebook page that: “The Air Force planes hit accurately two terrorist targets in the south and centre of the Gaza Strip in response to the release of some rockets from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel yesterday evening.”
The attack comes just hours before Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to announce a new unity government, which is hoped to end the internal Palestinian divisions.
Adraei, in Arabic, wrote: “We will not tolerate attempts by terrorists in the Gaza Strip, from any of the various organisations, to harm our citizens, and we will respond strongly against all those who use terrorism against us, and Hamas bears all responsibility.”
Security sources in the Gaza Strip said that Israeli warplanes targeted two sites belonging to Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, south of Gaza City and northwest of Khan Younis, without reported injuries, adding that the two locations are Abu Jarad and Hittin training camps.
Shortly afterwards, Adraei wrote on his Facebook page that Israeli forces “responded by artillery fire to rocket-propelled grenades that were fired from a Syrian territory near [Israeli] positions on Mount Hermon.” He added that the Israeli occupation “gives itself the right to reply with military action to protect the citizens of the state of Israel at any time and in any way it deems appropriate.”
Israeli Army Radio reported that three mortar shells were fired from Syria and landed in an area that is occupied by Israel in the Golan Heights, while the other two fell on the Syrian side. The Israeli army spokesperson, Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner, called the alleged attack a “flagrant violation of Israeli sovereignty. We are studying this attack with maximum firmness.” The Syrian regime had not commented on the incident up to the moment of the Israeli raid.
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