Dozens of settlers storm Al-Aqsa Mosque under the protection of the Israeli police
Air raids on Gaza after a rocket was fired from the Strip towards Israel
A ball of fire and a column of smoke rise above the buildings in southern Gaza after the Israeli raids.
A.F.B
Yesterday at dawn, Israeli fighters launched air strikes on targets in Gaza, in response to a missile fired from the Strip at areas in Israel, according to Palestinian and Israeli sources.
A security source in Gaza City said, "Israeli warplanes fired several missiles at a site in the city of Khan Yunis (south), and also targeted an empty land near the airport, south of the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip."
An eyewitness said that Israeli planes also launched a raid on an empty land in the middle of the Gaza Strip.
No injuries were reported in the Israeli raids, according to Palestinian medical sources.
In turn, the Israeli army confirmed in a statement that its fighters “targeted a workshop for the manufacture of weapons belonging to the Hamas movement, which constitutes a central location for the production of most of the movement’s rockets.
The warplanes also targeted a (Hamas) tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip.”
The statement indicated that the Israeli raids came in response to the firing of a missile from Gaza towards southern Israel, explaining that it targeted "the capabilities of building strength and armaments of (Hamas) in the Gaza Strip."
For its part, the website of the Israeli newspaper, The Jerusalem Post, stated that the Israeli raids targeted a workshop belonging to "Hamas" for the production of weapons.
The workshop is a central production site for many missiles.
It also targeted a Hamas tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip.
The newspaper added that during the strikes, a second missile alert was activated in open areas near the town of Bnei Netzarim, near the border with Gaza.
On Saturday evening, a rocket launched from the Strip landed in an uninhabited area in southern Israel, without causing any injuries or damage, according to what the Israeli army announced in a statement.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the missile launch.
The missile launch, the first in a month, according to the army, came the day after the death of Ammar Hadi Mufleh, 22, by Israeli forces at the entrance to the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank, in ambiguous circumstances.
Coinciding with the Israeli bombing, Palestinians fired two more rockets at towns in southern Israel, according to eyewitnesses and Palestinian security sources.
The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas) announced in a statement that, "its air defenses responded, at dawn yesterday, to Israeli warplanes in the skies of the Gaza Strip with surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft missiles."
In Ramallah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday accused Israel of practicing a policy of "racial discrimination" against the Palestinians.
This came in a televised speech by Abbas, broadcast by the official Palestine TV, at the ceremony announcing the results of the winners of the Palestinian certificate of honor for academic diplomacy advocating Palestinian rights.
"No, every day, every hour, there are Israeli aggressions and violations against our people, our land and our sanctities," Abbas said.
He added, "The Israeli settlement continues like a cancer in our land, and the settlers wreak havoc on the land, destroying crops and offspring."
In connection with this, Palestinian sources reported that dozens of settlers stormed the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque yesterday, under the strict protection of the Israeli police.
The Palestinian News and Information Agency (Wafa) quoted the sources as saying, "The settlers stormed Al-Aqsa from the Mughrabi Gate in successive groups, and carried out provocative tours in its courtyards."
According to the agency, “settlers storm the courtyards of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, daily, except for Friday and Saturday, at morning and evening intervals, in an attempt to impose the temporal and spatial division in it.”
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