Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in meeting discussing the situation in Gaza with Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and the Chief Staff of the IDF, July 20, 2018.. (photo credit: OFFICE OF DEPUTY DEFENSE MINISTER ELI BEN-DAHAN)
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The IDF attacked numerous Hamas targets across the Gaza Strip Friday evening in retaliation for Palestinian sniper fire at troops described as the most serious incident along the border fence since Operation Protective Edge in 2014 earlier in the day.
The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit released a statement saying that the strikes by fighter jets and tanks came as a response to sniper fire directed towards IDF troops during protests along the border fence earlier in the day in the Kissufim area.
“Hamas will be held accountable for this incident as well as the series of the terror activities it has been executing over the past months,” the IDF said in a statement. “Hamas has chosen to escalate the security situation and will bear the responsibility for its actions.”
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman spoke on the phone with Nikolay Mladenov, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process that Hamas was “deliberately deteriorating the situation” between Israel and the Gaza Strip and warned that Hamas would be responsible for any loss of life.
“If Hamas continues with the rocket fire, the result will be much harsher than they think, and the responsibility for all the destruction and loss of human life will be on Hamas,” he said.
Taking to Twitter, Mladenov stated that “the actions of #Hamas, #IslamicJihad & other groups in #Gaza put at risk not only the lives of Israelis & Palestinians alike, but also efforts to ensure a livable future 4 people of Gaza. They must prevent the launching of rockets & breaching of the fence.”
“Everyone in #Gaza needs to step back from the brink. Not next week. Not tomorrow. Right NOW! Those who want to provoke #Palestinians and #Israelis into another war must not succeed,” he added.
Incoming rocket sirens were activated in southern Israeli communities bordering the coastal enclave Friday evening, sending thousands in bomb shelters. The IDF said that two projectiles were intercepted by the Iron Dome Missile Defense System with reports of the third hitting open territory outside a community in the south.
The IDF’s Home Front Command had earlier instructed Israelis living in communities near the Gaza border to remain within a 15 second distance from a bomb shelter as well as to avoid mass gatherings.
The army also closed the Zikim beach to the public for the weekend as a precaution.
The Israeli strikes and the launching of the Gazan projectiles came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Liberman, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, Air Force Commander Maj.-Gen. Amikam Norkin and other top IDF officers met in the IDF Headquarters in Tel Aviv for a security assessment.
The airstrikes on Friday afternoon and evening targeted Hamas targets across the entire Strip after the sniper fire was directed towards IDF troops.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry there were two Palestinian casualties in the earlier strikes near Khan Younis and a third was killed east of Rafiah. They were identified as Shaaban Abu Khatir, Muhammed Abu Farhana and Mahmoud Qishta.
Unconfirmed reports in Gaza stated that the leadership of Hamas’s military wing ordered the gunfire in revenge for a Qassam Brigade member, identified by the Gaza European Hospital as 38 year-old Abdul-Karim Radwan who was killed on Thursday launching incendiary kites.
Earlier on Friday hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated along the border fence in another week of protests against the blockade of the coastal enclave. The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that at least five Palestinians were injured by live bullets.
On Friday morning Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned that Hamas is pushing Israel into a wide scale Gaza war that will be larger in scope than Operation Protective Edge in 2014.
“Hamas leaders are forcibly leading us into a situation where we will have no choice, a situation in which we will have to embark on a painful, wide-scale military operation,” Liberman said as he visited the southern city of Sderot.
“Hamas is responsible for this crisis, but unfortunately it’s the Gaza residents that may have to pay the price,” he noted.
Tensions with Gaza have significantly risen following a flareup of violence last weekend when Hamas launched 200 mortars and rockets into southern Israel and Israel struck over 40 Hamas targets across the Gaza Strip.
On Thursday Liberman held a meeting to assess the situation in the south shortly after a Hamas projectile struck southern Israel.
The meeting was attended by the IDF chief of staff, the head of military intelligence, the commanders of the Southern Command and Central Command, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) and members of the Shin Bet.
Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this report.
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