WarSclerotic

Hours after the Palestinian Islamic Jihad shot at least 30 mortars towards Israeli communities, the Israeli Air Force responded by bombing numerous target throughout the Gaza Strip. Among them was a terror tunnel and Hamas and PIJ facilities and outposts.

It would appear that the IDF’s strategic attack came in three waves, during which Hamas and PIJ training grounds and military bases were destroyed, as well as a terror tunnel and three Hamas naval facilities.

The counter attack came shortly after Israeli Prime Minister said in a speech that “Israel considers the attacks against us by Islamic Jihad and Hamas as grave,” and promised that “the IDF will respond will great force to these attacks- Israel will exact a heavy price on those who try to harm it and we hold Hamas responsible.”

The IDF is currently operating in the Gaza Strip. The explosions heard are related to this activity. Details to follow

— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) May 29, 2018

Both Emanuele Giaufter, the European Union’s ambassador to Israel, and Nickolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, condemned the attack from Gaza today. 

According to Reuters, Mladenov said in a statement that he is “deeply concerned: by the “indiscriminate firing of rockets by Palestinian militants from Gaza towards communities in southern Israel” and added that one of the mortar shells “hit in the immediate vicinity of a kindergarten and could have killed or injured children”.

As kids were preparing for school this morning a
barrage of rockets from Gaza fell on southern Israel. One landed outside a
kindergarten. I know the resilience of communities in southern Israel but
indiscriminate attacks are totally unacceptable and to be condemned
unreservedly.

— Emanuele Giaufret (@EGiaufretEU) May 29, 2018

Giaufret wrote on Twitter: “I know the resilience of communities in southern Israel but indiscriminate attacks are totally unacceptable and to be condemned unreservedly.”

As reported earlier from JOL, three barrages of mortars were fired at Israel from Gaza this morning. Rocket sirens went off in several locations and the Iron Dome system intercepted most of the projectiles, but one notably hit a kindergarten in the Eshkol regional council.