Hamas launched more than 200 projectiles were launched into Israel last weekend, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to deliver the “hardest blow” to the Palestinian terrorist organization since 2014.
According to the BBC, Israel conducted air strikes over the Gaza Strip, killing two people and injuring 12 more. Israel hit approximately 40 Hamas targets across the Gaza Strip. Three Israelis were wounded by one of the rockets.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tweeted about the attacks over the weekend:
Over the last hour, IDF fighter jets targeted dozens of military targets in four Hamas military compounds throughout the Gaza Strip. The focus of the wide-scale strike was a Hamas Battalion HQ in Beit Lahia pic.twitter.com/nDIxRA4ovn
— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) July 14, 2018
Moments ago, IDF fighter jets struck a high-rise building in the Al-Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza. The building was a Hamas training facility. A tunnel was dug under the building & used for underground warfare training. This tunnel is part of a Hamas terror tunnel network pic.twitter.com/M3C53RKMaC
— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) July 14, 2018
"In consultation with the minister of defense, the chief of staff and the top security command of the state of Israel, we have decided on strong action against Hamas terrorism," said Netanyahu. "The IDF have struck Hamas with the hardest blow since Operation Protective Edge and we will increase the strength of our attacks as necessary.”
Even after the two sides agreed to a ceasefire, the Jerusalem Post reported that Hamas launched combustible balloons meant to cross the northern border of the strip into Israel. Israeli forces responded by striking two Hamas positions in the northern part of the Gaza territory.
"To us, there is no such thing as a ceasefire that excludes the incendiary kites and balloons. No such thing, Netanyahu said after the failed ceasefire attempt. "I'll say this for the seventh time and I hope it gets through, but if it's not understood by my words, it will be understood by the IDF's actions.”
Incendiary balloon attacks from Hamas have destroyed over 7,000 acres of Israeli land.
“Just as we are now completing stopping the tunnels, and just as we are successfully acting to stop the mass assaults on the fences, so we have instructed the IDF to defeat and to stop the fire kite and balloon terror,” Netanyahu said.