Jerusalem/Gaza (EFE)
Since last Tuesday, 32 people have died – 31 of them in the enclave – in the midst of this new escalation of violence in the region.
An Israeli Army spokesman confirmed that this morning “an Israeli forces plane attacked areas (in the Gaza Strip) from which attempts were made to launch rockets into Israeli territory.”
A second bombardment on “Islamic Jihad targets” was reported shortly thereafter.
For their part, sources in the coastal enclave indicated that the Israeli attack had been registered on Deir Al Ballah, a town in the south of the Strip that borders the Mediterranean.
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On the Israeli side, the sirens sounded after 11:00 local time (08:00 GMT) in the towns of Netiv HaAssara, Sdeh Avraham, Holit, Nir Itzhak, Sufa and Yehuda, all close to the border with Gaza, and their inhabitants. they took refuge in bunkers.
Shortly after the alerts sounded in populations such as Beit Shemesh or the Jewish settlement of Gush Etzion -in the occupied West Bank-, near Jerusalem, in the center of Israel.
Until this morning, the Palestinian militias had launched 866 projectiles in this escalation that today enters its fourth day of fire, of which 672 crossed into Israeli territory, according to Army data.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting with his Security Cabinet for “a new evaluation,” his spokesman said.
Rumors of ceasefire
This exchange of fire occurs after a night of absolute calm, after an intense exchange of fire throughout the day on Thursday.
The day ended with an Israeli bombardment shortly before midnight (20:50 GMT) on the Gaza Strip, from where the Palestinian militias, led this time by the YIP, ceased firing around 10:00 p.m. (19:00 GMT).
Rumors of a ceasefire, mediated by Egypt, the UN and Qatar, have been circulating since yesterday, but both parties to the conflict claim that the negotiations were becoming “very difficult”, apparently due to Israel’s refusal to stop the assassinations of senior commanders in the YIP, considered a terrorist by Israel, the US and the European Union.
This war escalation began on Tuesday, when Israel activated the “Shield and Arrow” operation with the selective assassination of three YIP leaders -Jalil Baitini, Tareq Az Aldin and Jahed Ahnam- in intense bombardments that lasted for three days, also killing Ali Ghali and Ahmad Abu Daqqa, commander and deputy commander of the group’s rocket unit, yesterday.