Three wounded as 200 projectiles fired at Israel from Gaza StripMore than 40 targets were struck across the Gaza Strip following incessent rocket fire and launching of aerial incendiary devices.
Close to 200 projectiles were launched from the Gaza Strip toward the South since late Friday with at least 30 of them intercepted by the Iron Dome.
According to the IDF, Hamas launched 100 of the projectiles from 3 p.m onwards. The Iron Dome intercepted about 20 and another 73 fell in open areas. One rocket landed inside a kibbutz in the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council area and another rocket struck a courtyard of a synagogue in Sderot, without causing any injuries.
Three Israelis were wounded after a projectile hit a home in Sderot.
According to Magen David Adom, a 14-year-old girl was lightly wounded in her legs, a 15-year-old was lightly wounded with injuries to her face from broken glass and a 52-year-old man was in moderate condition after sustaining a chest wounded. All were evacuated by MDA to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon.
Earlier in the day, a firefighter was lightly wounded after falling while trying to take cover from a projectile. Damage was also caused to vehicles and to a chicken coop in a community in the Eshkol Regional Council.
As a precaution, the IDF instructed residents in Gaza border communities to remain within a 15-second radius from bomb shelters or safe rooms, closed the Zikim beach on Saturday and restricted gatherings of more than 100 people in open spaces, and more than 500 people in closed spaces across the border communities.
Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot held a situational assessment with the Gaza Division on Saturday, which included the participation of Southern Command head Maj.-Gen. Hertzi Halevi, Operations Directorate head Maj.-Gen. Aharon Haliva and Gaza Division commander Brig.-Gen. Yehuda Fuchs, as well as other commanders.
Earlier in the day, the IAF carried out the largest daytime operation against Hamas since Operation Protective Edge in 2014 with fighter jets hitting 40 targets across the Gaza Strip, IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Ronen Manelis said.
“There are three vectors here that we see in severity and cannot allow them to continue: fire terrorism, terrorism along the fence and rocket fire. We intend to stop it,” Manelis said.
While “it’s too early to talk about a broad military operation, we have understood in recent weeks that this day will come, and once relevant conditions have been created, we will act.”
A senior IAF officer said that while “in the last few hours Hamas has chosen to fire projectiles toward communities close to the Gaza border, you can’t take it for granted they will stop there.”
He warned that Israel would respond in a tougher manner if Hamas increase their distance of rocket fire to over 10 km.
“Hamas will regret it if it goes beyond that range, but we’re prepared for such a possibility,” he said.
The daytime trikes on Saturday targeted the headquarters of the Beit Lahiya Battalion, with jets striking urban warfare training facilities, weapon storage warehouses, training compounds, command centers, offices and more.
“The battalion command’s entire infrastructure has been destroyed, vaporized, turned into a giant hole,” Manelis said. Other strikes targeted armories, including those belonging to Hamas’s naval terrorism wing.
“This attack displays the IDF’s advanced intelligence and operational capabilities and could expand as needed and in accordance with a situational assessment,” the military said.
Later on Saturday, the IAF struck a high-rise building in the al-Shati refugee camp, wounding at least two children and several other Gazans. The IDF said it had warned residents of the building in advance of the strike, which was targeted because it was being used by Hamas as an urban warfare training facility and had a tunnel underneath it for underground warfare training.
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/IDF-strikes-terror-tunnels-as-31-Hamas-rockets-fired-to-southern-Israel-562479
