A woman was killed and another person was critically wounded in Rishon Lezion after terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired a barrage of rockets in the direction of Tel Aviv late Tuesday night setting off sirens throughout the center of the country.
After a heavy round of rockets was fired towards central and southern Israel, including Tel Aviv and Beersheba early Wednesday morning, a building was hit as a result of the launches, N12 reported.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz gave a joint statement Tuesday night, declaring that the violence will continue for some time.
“Hamas and Islamic Jihad have paid and will continue to pay for their actions,” said Netanyahu. “We are all mourning those killed and praying for those who were injured. We give our full support to the IDF and Israeli security forces. This campaign will take time.”
People run for shelter as air raid sirens are sounded in Jerusalem, May 10, 2021 (Reuters)
Israel has “the right and the obligation to act and will continue to do so,” said Gantz.
As of early Wednesday morning, three Israeli women were killed in rocket attacks, with 46 injured.
Of those injured, two are in serious condition: an 81-year-old woman and 30-year-old woman who caught shrapnel in her upper body.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad releases footage of a ATGM strike on a civilian vehicle
Additionally, four are in moderate condition and 24 are in light condition, with 16 of them injured while they were running for cover during rocket attacks.
First aid responders treated 43 civilians for anxiety and trauma, with few requiring additional medical attention.
Israel struck 500 targets, killing dozens of terrorists, IDF chief of staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi said. “We will continue extensive strikes against Gaza,” he added.
IDF strikes terrorists who fired rockets from the Gaza Strip, May 11, 2021 (Credit: IDF Spokesperson”s Unit)
A gas stockpile near Ashkelon exploded Tuesday after a rocket landed nearby. The fire was burning since the afternoon, but grew Tuesday evening. Specialists were brought to the scene to assess the situation and work to put out the flames.
IDF strikes terrorists who fired anti-tank missiles from the Gaza Strip, May 11, 2021 (Credit: IDF Spokesperson”s Unit)
The barrage toward Tel Aviv came hours after Hamas warned Israel that it would fire missiles into the metropolitan city if the IDF continued to strike buildings in the Gaza Strip.
Another rocket struck a bus in Holon, just south of Tel Aviv. Some 18 people were injured in Holon including the driver of the bus who was critically injured. Another three people were in moderate condition after being injured in the attack, including a five-year-old child. Four people were lightly injured in Givatayim.
The IDF responded by targeting Hamas infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. Ben-Gurion Airport was closed as rockets were intercepted above it.
Earlier on Tuesday, two women were killed in Ashkelon as barrages of rockets struck the southern city and the IDF continued to target Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist sites throughout the Gaza Strip.
One of the women was identified as Soumya Santhosh, an Indian national who worked as a caregiver for an elderly woman in Ashkelon. Santhosh was killed in the strike while the elderly woman sustained serious injuries.
The rockets fired at Tel Aviv set off sirens in Herziliya, Ra’anana and the Sharon region. The barrage came after Israel bombed a 13-story building in Gaza.
Over 800 rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza since Monday, including 150 that fell inside the Strip and another 200 that were intercepted by the Iron Dome, the army said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the intensity and rate of attacks will increase.
“We are in the midst of a campaign,” he said following a visit to the IDF’s Southern Command headquarter. “Since yesterday, the IDF has been attacking hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad sites in Gaza. We have neutralized commanders, we have hit many of their quality targets. Hamas will be struck in ways that it did not expect.”
The Israelis were killed – one woman in her 60s and the other in her 80s – when rockets slammed into their homes in Ashkelon. Minutes later the IDF reported that it had killed two top PIJ commanders responsible for rocket fire in Gaza.
Over 100 Israelis have been injured as close to a dozen buildings in Ashdod and Ashkelon were hit by rockets, according to Israel Police. One of the buildings was a school.
Israel has also begun
targeting top terrorist commanders, IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen. Hidai Zilberman said, including the commander of Hamas’s anti-tank guided missile unit, Iyad Fathi Faik Sharir, who has carried out a number of attacks against Israel in the past.
“The ATGM unit in Gaza City was prepared to carry out anti-tank guided missile attacks at the time of the strike,” the military said.
Another Palestinian terrorist killed was identified as Samah Abed al-Mamlouk. The IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said that he was attacked in a hideout together with a number of additional Islamic Jihad operatives. Mamlouk, the IDF said, was in charge of PIJ’s rocket arsenal.
In another strike, Hassan Abu al-Atta, deputy commander of Islamic Jihad’s Gaza Brigade, was also killed when the IDF struck an apartment in an eight-story building in Gaza’s Rimal neighborhood. He was the brother of Baha abu Al-Ata who was killed in an Israeli targeted killing 2019.
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For more on Israeli Politician Gaza reactions read here
Earlier Tuesday, Defense Minister Benny Gantz approved the call-up of 5,000 reservists as the IDF prepared for a large-scale offensive in the Gaza Strip as rocket attacks against southern Israel continued.
“For every day of shooting at the citizens of Israel – we will send [Hamas and PIJ] back years and hit them hard,” Gantz said at an operational assessment with Southern Command officers and heads of local municipalities in the South.
“We will not stop until calm returns. We will not stop until we achieve long-term calm and severe damage to the terrorist infrastructure,” Gantz went on to say on IDF operations in the coming days.
Gantz said Tuesday evening that he anticipates Hamas will make a “victory speech,” but that the reality is they will suffer a “very serious blow.”
“We are less than a day since the start of the operation, carrying out a massive wave of attacks in a campaign that began in Jerusalem. We have embarked on a campaign that will hurt Hamas seriously.”
At a briefing later in the day, the former chief of staff warned “We will not stop until calm returns. We will not stop until we achieve long-term calm and severe damage to the terrorist infrastructure.”
Speaking to reporters in the South next to an Iron Dome battery, Gantz said that “the purpose of the operation is to strike Hamas hard, to weaken it and to make it regret its decision.”
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi also ordered the reinforcement of the Gaza Division with infantry and armored brigades along with the continued redeployment of intelligence and air units.
Kohavi ordered the continued striking of Hamas and PIJ weapons and storage sites as well as the expanding of the strikes to other targets including operatives of the terror groups.
“The IDF will continue to act resolutely to restore security to the residents of the South, and all commanders must prepare for the expansion of the campaign, with no time limit,” the IDF said in a statement.
IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Hidai Zilberman warned in the morning that the military is “prepared for a variety of scenarios” including an escalation and said that the operation would last “several days” and would deal a hard blow to Hamas.
“We will continue to act vigorously against Hamas and other terror organizations,” Zilberman said, adding that Hamas is responsible for “what is happening and will bear the consequences.”
Referring to the casualties in Gaza, he said that while Israel “takes precautions” to minimize possible harm to civilians during its military operations, Hamas “deliberately places its military assets in the heart of the civilian population in Gaza.”
One of the Ashkelon residences hit in the Tuesday morning wave of rockets (Credit: Magen David Adom)
Hamas had threatened Israel on Monday that it would launch the rockets due to the ongoing clashes in Jerusalem and shortly after 6 p.m. seven rockets were fired towards the capital.
Hamas warned Egyptian officials overnight on Monday that the terrorist groups in Gaza refused to engage in any negotiations unless Israel withdraws security forces from the Temple Mount and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and releases all those detained in recent clashes in Jerusalem and the West Bank, according to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed. Hamas also demanded the canceling of planned evictions in Sheikh Jarrah.
Another Ashkelon home which was hit by the Tuesday morning wave of rockets. (Credit Ashkelon News)
Egyptian officials estimate that Israel and Gaza are heading to a further escalation. The officials reportedly asked for time to try and contain the crisis and persuade Israel to take a step back before clashes reach “the point of no return.”
Similarly to Hamas, the IDF is also not expressing interest in a ceasefire at the moment, with Zilberman stating in response to questions about a possible ceasefire “Talk to the Palestinians. I know nothing about that.”
Video Credit: Ofir Asulin, Sderot Municipality.
An IDF drill, known as “Chariots of Fire,” which was meant to be the military’s largest exercise and would have involved all units of the IDF, was postponed. “Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi ordered the IDF to focus its efforts on preparation and readiness for the possible scenarios of escalating [violence],” the military said in a statement.
