While President Joe Biden and international courts mount pressure on Israel over the ongoing military operation in Rafah, Hamas on Sunday morning used the southern Gaza stronghold to fire a massive barrage of rockets towards Tel Aviv, Herzliya and other cities in central Israel.
The terror group Hamas unleashed the barrage of rockets on Israeli population centers while clamouring for a Gaza ceasefire on ‘humanitarian’ grounds. “A massive barrage of rockets targeted Tel Aviv and central Israel for the first time in months. The rockets were fired from Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip,” the Jerusalem Post reported. “Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, with the al-Qassm Brigade, Hamas’s military wing,” the newspaper added.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed intercepting several Hamas rockets over the Israeli airspace. “Following the sirens that sounded in central Israel a short while ago, eight projectiles were identified crossing from the area of Rafah into Israeli territory,” the military said in a press release Sunday morning. “A number of the projectiles were intercepted by the IDF Aerial Defense Array.”
At least one Israeli home sustained damage from a Hamas rocket. “A home in Herzliya was damaged in the barrage of rockets fired from Rafah toward central Israel,” The Times of Israel reported. “Video shows damage to a bedroom after a large piece of shrapnel or interceptor crashed into the building.”
Images circulating on X, formerly Twitter, showed the impact of Hamas rockets across central Israel.
“One lightly wounded by shrapnel, several impacts located following rocket barrage on central Israel,” the Israeli TV channel i24NEWS reported in its live updates.
Defying international pressure, the IDF was continuing its offensive against Hamas in the Rafah stronghold. One of the main objection of the Rafah operation is to destroying Hamas’s underground terrorist infrastructure. The military was uncovering terror tunnel and underground weapons cache in the area.
“During targeted operations in the area of Rafah, terrorist operatives who attempted to attack IDF troops were eliminated. During scans in the area, IDF troops located tunnel shafts and large quantities of weapons, including AK-47s, RPGs, grenades, and explosives,” The IDF said in a press release Sunday morning.
The IDF also destroyed Hamas rocket launchers attempting to targets Kerem Shalom, the main transit point for aid from Israel to Gaza. earlier this month, Hamas rocket fire killed four Israeli soldiers manning the humanitarian border crossing. “In addition, two rocket launchers in the Rafah area that were aimed at Kerem Shalom were struck overnight,” the IDF added.
“Over the past day, the IAF struck and destroyed over 50 terror targets across the Gaza Strip, including military structures, weapons storage facilities, missile launchers, observation posts, terrorist cells, and additional terrorist infrastructure,” the IDF statement added.
Israeli troops found rockets and weapons cache hidden in a school in northern Gaza. Gaza school, many of then run by the terrorist-infested United Nations Palestinian aid agency UNRWA, are systematically used by Hamas to hide weapons and underground terror tunnels systems.
“IDF troops continue operational activity in the Jabaliya area,” the IDF disclosed. “The troops conducted an intelligence-based, targeted raid on a weapons storage facility embedded inside a school where the troops located dozens of rocket parts and weapons. This is further evidence of the Hamas terrorist organization’s systematic exploitation of civilian infrastructure for its military activities.”
The Israeli air force hit Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror targets in night time strikes. The Iran-backed terrorist group has been using the territory to fire rockets and shells at northern Israeli towns and cities since October 7. “Overnight, fighter jets struck a number of Hezbollah military structures and terror infrastructure in the areas of Khiam and Ayta ash Shab in southern Lebanon,” the military said Sunday morning. “Additionally, IDF artillery struck in the areas of Khiam, Houla, Markaba and Kfarkela in southern Lebanon.”
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