Israel ‘will respond swiftly and forcefully to any fire’ from Gaza, says Lapid

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said on Sunday that Israel “will respond swiftly and forcefully to any fire” launched from the Gaza Strip, which has been under a strict Israeli siege for 15 years. He made no mention of the fact that fire from Gaza is in response to the root cause of the conflict in occupied Palestine: Israel’s brutal military occupation.

“This government’s policy has not changed. To any fire, any incendiary balloon, we will respond swiftly and forcefully, and without hesitation,” Lapid said at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting.“All of us, all the members of the cabinet, send a strong embrace to the children [of Israeli Jewish settlers living in the settlements around the besieged Gaza Strip] who slept in bomb shelters on Friday night.”

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Following heavy bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation army said that it had struck two sites allegedly used by Hamas to produce weapons.

“The first was one of the largest and most important sites in the Strip for the production of base materials for rockets by terror groups,” said the occupation army. It asserted that the attack would set back rocket-making“significantly”.

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According to Ynet News, Israeli military spokesperson Ran Kochav claimed that the underground site was also used to manufacture drones. “In this specific case, [the IDF struck] 16 tons of explosives in an underground UAV production hall and facility,” he said.

Israeli Channel 12 News reported that the missiles used in the strike were laser-guided GBU-28 bunker buster bombs with a payload of 286 kilograms (630 pounds).