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Hamas fired rockets at Tel Aviv on Thursday, marking its first military response to the escalating civilian death toll in Gaza due to Israel’s resumed air and ground operations.
The move comes as Israel steps up its ground offensive, having closed off the Gaza Strip’s main north-south route to expand its operations.
Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, stated that the rocket fire was in retaliation for Israel’s “massacres” of civilians in Gaza, where the local civil defence agency reports that 504 people, including more than 190 children, have been killed since the recent offensive resumed.
In response, the Israeli army said it intercepted one of the projectiles and that two others hit an uninhabited area.
Israel resumed its airstrikes on Tuesday after a period of relative calm following a ceasefire on January 19. This marked the end of a temporary truce, with Gaza returning to a state of intense bombardment.
At Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital, families grieved over the victims, with some pleading for international intervention to stop the violence.
On Thursday, the Israeli army restricted movement on Gaza’s main north-south artery, with Palestinians seen fleeing south along makeshift carts.
The move was part of Israel’s strategy to create what they call a security zone between the northern and southern parts of the Gaza Strip.
Through the ongoing Israeli airstrikes and killings, international figures, including the head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency, Philippe Lazzarini, condemned the continued bombardment, describing the situation as an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also condemned Israel’s actions, calling them a “catastrophic crime” and blaming the United States for its involvement.
The ongoing conflict has resulted in over 49,000 deaths in Gaza, mostly civilian women and children, according to local health authorities.
