Israel hit by rocket, Seven wounded
In a rocket attack allegedly fired from the Gaza Strip has struck a home in central part of Tel Aviv, wounding seven people and led the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cut short his US trip. Netanyahu has vowed a strong and a potential major conflagration to the attack as the elections near in Israel.
A residential home was completely destroyed in the north of Kfar Saba city. The home belonged to the community of Mishmeret, wounding all six members of a family. The ambulance service of Israel stated that it has treated all the seven people who had been moderately wounded. Two women, two children and an infant were also wounded.
The residents of Sharon area rushed to the bomb shelters after 5am as the sounds of the air raid sirens filled the air with fear followed by sound of a loud explosion. The military of Israel has said that the rocket has been fired by the Hamas from the Gaza Strip and that they were deploying two brigades and other infantry units to the southern Gaza area. Netanyahu who was on his US tour, held an emergency meeting with the military officials who were at Israel and snapped his visit thereby cancelling his address to the AIPAC conference and also the meetings with other members of the Congress. No group had claimed responsibility for the attack. PM Netanyahu said, “There has been a criminal attack on the State of Israel and we will respond forcefully. In a few hours I will meet with President Trump. I will return to Israel immediately afterward.”
Various witnesses in Gaza have stated that Hamas officials were evacuating the government premises in anticipation of a response from Israel to the alleged attack. Yehiya Sinwar, the Gaza Chief of Hamas has cancelled a scheduled public speech. Israel has also shut down its primary cargo crossing to Gaza. The attack has come exactly after 10 days when rockets were fired from Gaza to Tel Aviv.
Hamas has been in-charge of Gaza since 2007 after the group had won a major victory in the parliamentary elections a year ago, the results of which were not ratified by the Western governments. It was in June 2007 when Hamas had fought to forestall a coup by Fatah which is in control of the Palestinian Authority thus driving it away from the territory. It was in the same year when Israel and Egypt also imposed an ongoing land, air and naval blockade on the coastal enclave. Israel has ever since 2008, waged three offensives on Gaza. The last major offensive was launched in 2014 in which there are over 2000 Palestinians were killed mostly civilians.
