Source: IDF strikes Hamas ‘infrastructure targets’ in southern Lebanon | The Times of Israel
The Times of Israel is liveblogging Friday’s events as they unfold.
The Israel Defense Forces says 44 projectiles, including rockets and anti-aircraft missiles, were launched from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel overnight.
In a briefing with reporters, military spokesman Daniel Hagari says nine of the rockets failed to cross the border and fell short in the Palestinian enclave, 12 were fired toward the sea, 14 landed in open areas in Israel, one landed in a populated area in the southern city of Sderot, and eight were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system.
Hagari says the Israeli Air Force struck over ten Hamas targets in Gaza in response to renewed rocket attacks on the south, using around 50 tons of munitions.
Regarding the IAF strikes against Hamas targets in Lebanon, Hagari says “the state of Lebanon is considered responsible for everything that happens in its territory, and even for the firing [of rockets] by Hamas Palestinian factions, we will not allow Hamas to operate from Lebanon.”
The IDF is instructing residents of cities and towns near the Gaza Strip to stay near a protective space that can quickly be reached when a siren sounds warning of incoming rockets.
Residents are instructed to stay in the protected space for 10 minutes after hearing a rocket siren, says the military
A fresh round of rocket sirens are sounding across southern Israeli cities and towns, after a brief lull.
Incoming rocket alerts are heard in Sderot, Ibim, Nir Am, Mefalsim, Gavim, Nachal Oz, and Alumim.
The military does not immediately provide further details.
Overnight, around 40 rockets were reportedly launched from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel amid Israeli airstrikes in response to earlier attacks.
A home in one of Sderot’s oldest neighborhood is found to have sustained damage in the overnight salvo from the Gaza Strip, the Sderot municipality says.
It is not immediately clear if the damage was caused by rocket shrapnel, but medics say it appears to be the cause.
A mother and her daughter who stayed in a protected room in the home were unharmed, Magen David Adom medics say.
Tensions are running high at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the flashpoint Temple Mount site, Islam’s third-holiest site, where thousands of Muslim worshippers are gathering for Friday prayers during the holy month of Ramadan, following a long night of Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip and a rare strike in Lebanon overnight.
According to reports in the Hebrew media, Palestinian worshippers at the site were calling to support the “resistance,” a reference to terror group Hamas, which rules Gaza.
Israeli security forces expect some 100,000 worshippers at the Temple Mount over the course of Friday.
Overnight, Israel struck multiple sites in the Palestinian enclave, including weapon production sites and tunnels serving Hamas, hours after a barrage of rockets from Gaza and from Lebanon on Thursday.
Israel hit “terror infrastructure” belonging to Hamas in southern Lebanon in the early hours of Friday morning. The group has a presence in southern Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps.
UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping outfit deployed along the buffer zone between Israel and Lebanon, says the Israel Defense Forces informed the force that it will begin “an artillery response” to Thursday rocket launches into Israel from Lebanon.
UNIFIL says its personnel soon heard loud explosions around the city of Tyre in southern Israel and that the head of mission and force commander, Major General Aroldo Lázaro, was speaking with authorities on both sides.
“Both sides have said they do not want a war,” UNIFIL says in a statement, warning that the “actions over the past day are dangerous and risk a serious escalation.”
The Israel Defense Forces say Israeli jets hit additional targets in the Gaza Strip amid ongoing airstrikes in the Palestinian enclave.
Fighter jets took out a shaft for an underground weapons production site, three other sites for weapons manufacturing and a terrorist tunnel, belonging to terror organization Hamas, the military says.
These attacks disrupt Hamas’s ability to “strengthen and arm itself,” the military says, adding that the terror group “bears responsibility” for recent events and “is the one that will pay the price for the security violations against the State of Israel.”
Israel has been striking Gaza overnight and launched a rare airstrike in Lebanon less than two hours ago, following a day of rocket barrages from the Palestinian enclave and from Lebanon territory on Thursday.
Nearly three dozen rockets were launched at Israel from Lebanon on Thursday afternoon, most of them intercepted by the Iron Dome system.
Rocket sirens are sounding in the southern Israeli towns of Sderot, Ibim and Nir Am, amid ongoing military airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has been targeting multiple sites in the Palestinian enclave and in Lebanon in response to rocket barrages from both territories on Thursday.
The military a short while ago said it struck multiple targets including “terrorist infrastructure” belonging to terror group Hamas in southern Lebanon.
“The IDF will not allow the Hamas terrorist organization to operate from within Lebanon and holds the state of Lebanon responsible for every directed fire emanating from its territory,” the military says.
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