Israel launches airstrikes on Gaza after Nablus massacre
Israel has launched airstrikes on the blockaded Gaza Strip a day after the occupying regime's forces carried out a violent raid on the occupied West Bank city of Nablus. Israeli warplanes bombed targets in northern Gaza City on Thursday after billows of black smoke billowed over one of the attacked locations.
Hours earlier, the Israeli military issued a statement claiming that at dawn Palestinian resistance forces fired six rockets from the coastal strip at the Israeli-held cities of Sderot and Ashkelon, triggering warning sirens in both cities. It also claimed five of the missiles were intercepted, adding that another landed in an uninhabited area. There were no reports of casualties or damage. Palestinian witnesses said they saw at least eight rockets fired.
So far, no Palestinian resistance group has claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks. However, the attacks appeared to be in retaliation for Israeli forces' raid on Nablus a day earlier, which killed at least 11 Palestinians. More than 100 people were also wounded when forces from the occupying regime stormed Nablus, including a 72-year-old man, a 14-year-old boy and two commanders of the Gaza-based Islamic Jihad resistance movement. Palestinian resistance groups strongly condemned the attack and announced retaliation.
The secretary-general of the Islamic Jihad movement, Ziad al-Nakhala, called the raid a "heinous crime" and said the Palestinians would not let the atrocity go unpunished. Abu Obeida, a spokesman for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas resistance movement, also warned that "the resistance in Gaza is monitoring the enemy's escalating crimes against our people in the occupied West Bank and is losing patience."
The Israeli regime has intensified its crackdown on Nablus and the nearby city of Jenin since late December, when Benjamin Netanyahu regained power as the regime's prime minister, heading a cabinet made up of far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties. Late last month, Israeli forces shot dead at least 10 Palestinians and wounded over a dozen others in a violent raid on Jenin and the neighboring refugee camp. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 61 Palestinians, including gunmen and civilians, were killed in 2023.
