The Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror organizations on Saturday warned Israel following airstrikes in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire at southern Israeli communities.
Hamas spokesman called the airstrikes a “dangerous escalation” and said the “Zionist enemy bears responsibility for its consequences and ramifications.”
Meanwhile an unnamed senior Hamas figure told Haaretz the rocket launches were carried out without Hamas’s approval and were not the work of one of the major Palestinian factions.
On Saturday afternoon Israelis hiking in a riverbed near the Strip discovered an explosive device hidden inside a book. Police sappers were called to the scene and destroyed the bomb in a controlled detonation. It was thought it may have been sent over the border tied to a helium balloon.
The Hamas-run health ministry said a Palestinian was killed and two were wounded in the Israeli strikes across Gaza Friday night; it did not say if he was affiliated with a terror group.
The strikes came after the army said 10 rockets were fired Friday night into Israel, one of which struck a home in the southern city of Sderot.
“The Israeli occupation bombardment and targeting of resistance sites and our people in Gaza is a continuation of a series of Zionist crimes and acts of aggression,” Barhoum said in a statement.
“We affirm the blood of our people is dear and no one will allow the enemy to violate it or to turn Gaza into an arena to export internal crises,” he said. READ MORE
