The recent escalation in conflict between Hamas and the State of Israel has resulted in the killing of at least three Palestinians, including a pregnant woman and her 18-month-old child.
The trio was killed by Israeli air attacks and artillery shelling on the besieged Gaza Strip on Thursday after Israel launched more than 140 attacks after Hamas rained a barrage of about 150 rockets fired from the coastal enclave and injuring at least six people within Israel.
The Israeli military had warned Hamas against escalating the violence as officials were considering evacuating residents from areas near the Gaza border.
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Israeli military made this known via their twitter account, according to them, ‘
“The way things continue to play out is significant. Hamas will understand in the coming hours, as in the past months, that this is not the direction it wants to choose,”
Local media had also quoted military officials who disclosed that Israel was close to a military operation in Gaza in which Hamas will be hit hard.
A member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inner cabinet, Yuval Steinitz, told Israel Radio: “We are not eager for war and are not interested in a broader confrontation, but at the same time it could certainly happen because we will not make any concessions to Hamas.”
Reacting to the latest rounds of violence between Israel and Hamas, Abdullatif al-Kanoo, a spokesman for Hamas, said in a Twitter post
“In regards to the continuing [Israeli] aggression … the Palestinian resistance is in self-defense and has a duty to respond to the aggression against our people.
He continued further,
“The escalation of the barbaric shelling of Gaza and the deliberate targeting of civilians is premeditated and the occupation will suffer the repercussions and pay a higher price for its crimes.”
The Palestinian news agency WAFA had also reported that at least 12 Palestinians were wounded in the overnight barrage by Israel stating that a member of Hamas’ armed wing was also killed in the latest round of violence.
Palestinians have been carrying out weekly protests against Israel at the border between the Palestinian enclaves and Israeli territory.
Israel has tightened the blockade on Gaza and the West Bank as a result of the protests; going as far as to stop the import of fuel into the Palestinian territories and cutting electricity as well.