Israeli warplanes bombarded the building of an insurance and investment company in central Gaza City, as part of an operation announced that it comes in response to the launch of a missile from the Gaza Strip on a town near Tel Aviv. The building was completely destroyed and the adjacent civilian buildings were damaged.
The Israeli army said the building it bombed in the center of Gaza was a secret and central building used by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) as the headquarters of its general security and military intelligence.
Al-Jazeera correspondent also reported that the Israeli planes bombed the office of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of Hamas, with three rockets.
The correspondent added that the sirens sounded in Israeli towns in the Gaza envelope after the launch of two rockets from the Gaza Strip towards the settlements of the Gaza Strip, while Israeli Channel 12 reported that rocket-propelled grenades were fired from Gaza and landed in an open area in Eshkol.
The Israeli army also reported that its aircraft bombed the movement's internal security building in the Al-Remal neighborhood of Gaza. Al-Jazeera correspondent said the bombing destroyed the building.
Israeli reconnaissance planes fired one missile at an Interior Ministry official's house in Al-Shojaeya neighborhood, east of Gaza City, as a prelude to shelling it completely, as was customary in such campaigns.
The Israeli warplanes launched a series of raids on sites belonging to the Palestinian resistance and agricultural land in different parts of the sector.
According to medical sources, no injuries were reported in the Israeli raids until now.
The Israeli authorities decided to open the bomb shelters in the cities of Rishon Letzion, south of Tel Aviv and Beersheba.
Hamas warns
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum warned the Israeli occupation against committing any "folly" against Gaza and its resistance.
"The cost of this will exceed the estimates of the Israeli occupation and will find itself in the face of strong resistance ready for today."
The Palestinian presidency condemned the recent Israeli escalation on the Gaza Strip, while the Ministry of Interior and National Security in the Gaza Strip established the security, policing and services agencies "in an alert and ready to follow up the effects of the aggression," said ministry spokesman Iyad al-Bazm.
On Tuesday, Israeli police announced that seven Israelis were wounded in the settlement of Meshemir near Kfar Saba, northeast of Tel Aviv, when a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed.
The Israeli army accused Hamas of launching the rocket, and that it was "responsible for what is happening in the Gaza Strip," but the group denied responsibility for the attack.