Today, Thursday, the Martyr Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), broadcast video footage of the air defenses in Gaza confronting the Israeli air force.
And the brigades said - in a military statement - "The air defense media confronted the hostile Zionist aircraft in the skies of the Gaza Strip with surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft missiles."
The Israeli occupation army announced that it carried out air strikes in the Gaza Strip at dawn today, Thursday, hours after it intercepted a missile fired from the Strip, and there were no reports of casualties.
The Israeli occupation army said - in a tweet on Twitter - that its fighter planes attacked a site for the production and storage of chemical raw materials used by the Hamas missile production system, and a weapons production site, both of which are located in the central Gaza Strip.
The IDF holds Hamas responsible for all terrorism activity emanating from Gaza and it will face the consequences of the security violations against Israel.
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— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) February 2, 2023
For his part, the Al-Jazeera correspondent reported that Israeli planes bombed several sites of the resistance in the Gaza Strip, in return, the resistance factions responded by bombing the settlements around the Gaza Strip with several missiles.
The bombing came hours after the Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, called on Wednesday evening to hold an urgent security meeting after the occupation army announced the interception of a missile fired from the Gaza Strip.
And Palestinian media confirmed that "the resistance factions confronted the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip with ground anti-aircraft missiles."
Israeli planes bombed several resistance sites in the Gaza Strip at dawn today, Thursday (Getty Images)
For its part, Hamas considered that the Israeli raids on Gaza are a completion of what it called the episodes of aggression launched by the occupation against the Palestinian people, their land and their sanctities.
The movement's spokesman, Hazem Qassem, described the Israeli government as extremist, and said that its presence opens the door to field escalation.
These events come after US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken visited the region with the aim of calling for calm, as he reaffirmed Washington's support for the two-state solution as a way to end the decades-old conflict.
It should be noted that last week the Palestinian Authority suspended security coordination with Israel after the largest incursion by the Israeli forces in years, as the occupation penetrated deep into the Jenin camp and caused the death of 10 Palestinians, including an elderly woman, and injured dozens, some of whom were in serious condition, and this was followed by two shootings. A fire in Jerusalem killed 7 Israelis.
Last January, the Israeli occupation forces killed 35 Palestinians, including 8 children, while 224 Palestinians, including 61 children, were killed in the West Bank and Gaza in the past year 2022.