The United States condemned the Hamas terror group on Thursday for launching some 180 rockets and mortar shells at Israeli population centers and defended Israel’s military response in the worst exchange of fire since the 2014 war.
Palestinians in Gaza are reporting heavy bombardments by the Air Force in the northern Gaza Strip, primarily in the Jabalia and Rafah regions, in response to militants firing dozens of rockets at southern Israel Wednesday evening resulting in a number of injuries in Sderot. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to convene Security Cabinet Wednesday night.
Rocket barrages by the Hamas terror group continued throughout the night. The military said over 150 rockets and mortar shells were launched at Israeli communities since Wednesday evening.
Senior Hamas officials who held talks with Egyptian intelligence officials in Cairo over the past three days were scheduled to arrive in the Gaza Strip Thursday to meet with party leaders, sources close to the Islamist movement said.
The US Senate easily passed a $716.3 billion defense authorization bill Wednesday that includes funding for Israel to defend itself against Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as ramping up military spending and bolstering America’s posture against Russia while avoiding policy changes that would have antagonized US President Donald Trump.
Israel is making ‘great strides’ toward a broad military operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Minister of Public Security and Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan asserted Thursday, following an escalation of violence with Gaza overnight.
Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, announced Thursday morning that its forces were going on high alert, deploying at the highest readiness level in expectation of a possible full-blown war with Israel.
The Israel Air Force launched a major wave of strikes at Hamas targets across the Gaza Strip on Friday evening as a cabinet minister said Israel was preparing a massive response to Hamas’s failure to heed repeated Israeli warnings to end the violence along the Gaza border.
An initial investigation by the IDF has concluded that Staff Sgt. Aviv Levi, killed Friday by Palestinian sniper fire on the Gaza border, was hit by an armor-piercing bullet fired from an Iranian-manufactured rifle, Hadashot TV news reported Sunday.
Senior Advisor to US President Donald Trump Jared Kushner, Top Negotiator Jason Greenblatt and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman called on Hamas to stop terror, return Israeli prisoners to their families and, in exchange, receive aid to improve the situation in the Gaza Strip in a column published by the Washington Post Thursday night.
Hamas has accepted an Egyptian proposal to reconcile with Fatah and is awaiting a response from its rival Palestinian faction, senior Hamas officials said on Wednesday.
Israel’s political leadership has reportedly instructed the army to prepare for a military offensive in the Gaza Strip, to be initiated if the launching of incendiary devices from the Hamas-run coastal enclave into Israeli territory continues.
Hamas has been diverting resources intended for civilian development in Gaza to enhance its military capabilities, including a growing drone program.
Israeli aircraft on Saturday attacked more than 40 targets in the Gaza Strip in the most extensive daytime assault since 2014’s Operation Protective Edge as Palestinian terror groups fired repeated salvos of rockets and mortars into Israel.
Egypt has invited senior Hamas officials to Cairo for talks on the continued tensions along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel and ways of ending the dispute between the Islamist movement and the ruling Fatah faction in the West Bank.
The Palestinians will not allow US President Donald Trump’s yet-to-be-announced plan for peace in the Middle East to pass, and will continue paying salaries to families of Palestinian prisoners and ‘martyrs,’ Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday.
Hamas has increased its training in preparation for a possible conflict with Israel, defense officials warned on Sunday.
The Qatari Ambassador to Gaza Mohammed Al-Emadi confirmed on Sunday evening for the first time that Israel is holding indirect discussions with the Hamas terror group in an effort to formulate a solution to the humanitarian crisis in the strip that will include infrastructure projects.
The Palestinian Authority on Tuesday expressed fear that the talk about easing restrictions on the Gaza Strip was part of an Israeli-Palestinian ‘conspiracy’ to transform the Palestinian cause into a ‘humanitarian issue.’
Rocket sirens blared throughout the predawn hours of Wednesday morning in the Israeli communities surrounding the Gaza Strip as Palestinians launched over a dozen rockets at southern Israel after the military struck a Hamas vehicle in the center of the coastal enclave.