Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will not overlook the firing of even a single rocket at Israel after a third rocket exploded in Israel since the conclusion of Operation Protective Edge this past summer.
Speaking at a Hanuka candle- lighting ceremony at the Western Wall, Netanyahu said:
“Israel’s safety comes first. I won’t allow even one rocket, and that is why the Israeli Air Force responded to the rocket and destroyed a cement factory that was making cement to repair tunnels that were hit during Operation Protective Edge. Hamas will be held responsible for every escalation. We will protect Israel’s safety.”
Following the Israel attack, Hamas official Ismail al-Ashkar threatened that: “the resistance has the right to respond to the Israeli aggression at the time and place it chooses.” Another statement from the group said:
“The Israeli attack… constitutes a dangerous escalation. We call on the international community to bear the responsibility for the Israeli aggression.”
However, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, Moussa Abu Marzouk, said that his movement is ready to maintain the calm and the ceasefire as long as Israel is committed to it (Arabic link).
The Israeli Air Force struck a Hamas facility in the Khan Younis area in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday night in retaliation for the attack, Ynet reported. It marked the first time Israel carried out an air strike in the Gaza Strip since Operation Protective Edge ended in August. No injuries were reported.
A Code Red rocket alert siren was heard shortly before noon Friday in the Eshkol Regional Council, an Israeli community close to the Gaza border, and was soon followed by blasts, residents reported. IDF forces canvassing the area found a rocket that fell in an open area, and no injuries or damage were reported. This is the third time a Gaza rocket has landed on the Israeli side of the border since the end of Israel and Hamas’ 50-day summer war.
At the same time, the group is trying to rebuild its military capabilities. Hamas has been reported to be commandeering building construction materials from Israel transferred into the Gaza Strip that are supposed to be for housing reconstruction but instead Hamas is using the material to rebuild its network of offensive ‘terror tunnels’.
[Photo: Amir Farshad Ebrahimi / Flickr]