A large-scale Israeli aerial attack in Gaza, fighters and helicopters in action

TEL AVIV, (BM) – Military says fighter jets, attack helicopters bombed terror group’s facility in Khan Younis, elsewhere in the Strip, following afternoon barrages that struck southern Israel, learned BulgarianMilitary.com citing the Times of Israel.

Read more: BulgarianMilitary.com 24/7 – Gaza Strip tension, Israel-Palestina

The Israel Defense Forces launched a series of airstrikes against Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday, after the terror group fired at least 14 rockets at southern Israel earlier in the day, the military said.

The IDF said it struck an Islamic Jihad military base in the Gazan city of Khan Younis, along with other facilities controlled by the terror group in the Strip.

Shortly after the military completed its airstrikes in Gaza, terrorists in the Strip fired one rocket toward the city of Ashkelon, just north of the Palestinian enclave, sending thousands of people rushing to bomb shelters, the military said.

It appeared as though the rocket landed in the sea off the coast of the city, according to video footage and photographs of the attack. There were no reports of injuries or damage.

The military said the Khan Younis base, which featured underground infrastructure, was used by the Islamic Jihad as both a training center and a storage depot for weaponry.

The retaliatory strikes were conducted by fighter jets and attack helicopters in response to rocket fire from the Gaza Strip aimed at southern Israel earlier in the day, the IDF said.

Photographs and video footage of the IDF’s rare daytime strikes showed massive fireballs going into the air following the strikes, likely indicating secondary blasts from explosives being stored on the base.

“The IDF will respond aggressively to the terrorist activities of the Islamic Jihad, which threaten the citizens of Israel and harms its sovereignty,” the military said in a statement.

In announcing the fresh airstrikes in Gaza on Monday, the IDF notably mentioned only Islamic Jihad, not the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror group, with which Israel hopes to negotiate a ceasefire agreement. In the past, Israel held Hamas responsible for all violence emanating from the Strip, regardless of which terror group was behind it.

However, the IDF has lately begun to distinguish between Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which Israel believes is responsible for the majority of the violence along the Gaza border in recent months.

Beginning at noon Monday, Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired at least 14 rockets at southern Israel, 12 of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system, the IDF said.

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Source: https://bulgarianmilitary.com/2020/02/24/a-large-scale-israeli-aerial-attack-in-gaza-fighters-and-helicopters-in-action/

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