IAF strikes over 30 targets in Gaza, Palestinians say girl killed
At least 20 people reported wounded; renewed rocket fire and IDF attacks cause dozens of Palestinian families to flee their homes once more to UN shelters.
The IDF said it attacked over 30 targets in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday from the later afternoon hours in response to resumed rocket fire at southern Israel.
According to reports, the IDF attacked control and command sites in agricultural near Beit Lahiya, in Al-Zaytun neighborhood in Gaza City and in the Maghazi refugee camp. There were also reports of artillery fire in the northern Gaza Strip. Later reports were of IDF strikes in open areas in the center and north of the Strip, as well as a post of one of the military factions in Rafah.
Hospital officials reported that five Palestinians, two of them children, were wounded. Gaza health officials also reported one girl was killed and 15 others wounded in IDF strikes in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City.
The attacks spurred a new exodus of dozens of Palestinian families who had fled previous fighting and returned home only days ago. They were flocking to UN shelters, anticipating heavy IDF response fire on Gaza. Another report said movement on the streets in the Strip has decreased since the rocket fire at Israel, likely due to the fear of IDF strikes.
A senior political source told Ynet that Prime Minister Netanyahu Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon have ordered the IDF to respond to the rocket fire by hitting "terror targets".
In a statement, the IDF said it was attacking targets throughout the Strip, and said it was "ready to continue and work to secure the residents of Israel." Palestinians said that the Strip was sustaining IDF fire from both sea and air.
"In response to the breach in the ceasefire by Hamas, the prime minister and defense minister have ordered the IDF to hit terror targets in Gaza," an official within the Prime Minister's Office said.
