VIDEO: IDF thwarts terror attacks as 40,000 take part in Gaza protests

An IAF fighter jet struck five terrorist targets in the northern Gaza Strip in response to violent acts by Hamas along the security fence on Monday, according to IDF reports. The targets included military training facilities belonging to Hamas.

Earlier today, two additional Hamas military positions were hit by tank- and aircraft fire, after IDF forces were shot at by Hamas from the northern part of the coastal enclave.

“The IDF is determined to prevent massive terror activities constantly being led by the Hamas terror organization,” an IDF statement emphasized, adding that “Each act of terror will be met with a harsh response.”

Attempts to sabotage security infrastructure on Israel-Gaza border, May 14, 2018 (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)

40,000 Palestinians took part in Monday’s violent riots in 13 locations along the Gaza Strip security fence, marking Nakba Day and protesting the transfer of the US embassy to Jerusalem.

“Nakba Day,” or “Day of Catastrophe,” is observed annually by Palestinians and Israeli-Arabs to commemorate the events following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.

Gazans have been protesting along the border with Israel for the past six weeks as part of what organizers have called the ‘Great March of Return’, with demonstrators throwing stones, Molotov cocktails and rocks, as well as launching incendiary kites toward Israeli troops.

A terrorist cell tries to penetrate the Gaza security fence, May 14, 2018 (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)

Last Friday, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh took part in the protests, arriving at the northern part of Gaza border to encourage the rioters.

“We’re expecting the great march on the 14th and 15th of this month – the entire Palestinian people will be out on the streets of Palestine,” he said. “Our people will flock from the refugee camps in Lebanon to the northern border of Palestine, and our people in Jordan will also flock to the outskirts of Palestine.

We’ll turn the nakba [catastrophe] that ended Palestine to a nakba that ends the Zionist enterprise.”