The airstrikes in Gaza come a week after 10 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli warplanes have attacked positions in the Gaza Strip after a rocket landed in southern Israel and as the conflict escalates in the West Bank where 10 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since last week.
The Israeli military said the airstrikes early Sunday morning targeted a weapons facility and an underground tunnel belonging to Hamas, according to the Associated Press.
“Overnight neglect continues to prevent escalation,” the Israeli army said of Hamas, the AP reported.
No group has claimed responsibility for the rocket, said to be the first fired in a month, which the Israeli military said landed in an open area near the Gaza-Israel fence on Saturday evening without damaging or damaging property.
The airstrikes in Gaza follow the outrage over the killing of a Palestinian boy, Ammar Mufleh, 23, by an Israeli soldier on Friday afternoon and was captured on video. The disturbing images have sparked outrage among Palestinians and calls on the media to step up resistance to the Israeli occupation.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned Mufleh’s shooting as an assassination, and Palestinian activists and social media users adopted the hashtag “Huwara Execution” in Arabic, calling for accountability for Israeli war crimes.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, issued a statement saying he was “deeply concerned about the level of violence in the West Bank”.
“In the last days alone, 10 Palestinians have been killed by the ISF (Israeli Security Forces). Yesterday’s tragic killing of a Palestinian, Ammar Mifleh, by a member of the ISF (Israeli Security Forces) was the latest example,” said Borrell.
“Such irregularities must be investigated and there must be full accountability. Under international law, lethal force is justified only when there is a serious and imminent threat to life,” he said.
The escalating violence has made 2022 the deadliest year since the end of the second Intifada in 2005, with at least 207 Palestinians killed in the occupied territories of the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and East Jerusalem so far this year.
