JERUSALEM — Israeli fighter jets attacked targets in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the military said, hours after a rocket fired overnight by militants in the territory struck a house in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, a sharp escalation after months of simmering tensions along the Israel-Gaza border.
The residents of the house — a woman and her three young children — were treated for shock, according to the Israeli emergency services. There were also reports in the news media and from local residents of a second rocket falling into the sea after it was fired overnight toward the crowded coastal area of central Israel, although the Israel Defense Forces declined to confirm that.
The main militant groups in Gaza, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, issued a joint statement soon after the first Israeli strikes, denying responsibility for the rocket fire against Israel. The possibility that the rockets were launched by a smaller, rogue group increased the likelihood that both sides may try to contain the hostilities and not allow them to spiral into all-out conflict, though the situation remained volatile.
Hours later, Israel said it had targeted a squad of militants who were trying to launch more rockets into southern Israel. One Palestinian man was killed, according to Gaza health officials, and three Palestinians were injured in earlier airstrikes on militant targets in Rafah, in southern Gaza.
The exchange came after seven Palestinians were killed on Friday by Israeli fire during a particularly stormy day of protests. Four of the dead had crossed the fence that separates Gaza from Israeli territory and tried to reach an army sniper’s post, and one was armed with a knife, according to Israeli forces at the scene.
In recent weeks, the Palestinians have also resumed flying incendiary balloons from Gaza, some rigged with small explosive devices and others designed to set fires in Israel.
The Israeli defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, warned during a visit to the Gaza Division of the Israeli military on Tuesday, “We have all come to the understanding that the situation as it is today cannot continue.”
Mr. Lieberman, who is known for taking hard-line stance toward the Palestinians, said Israel had tried using peaceful means to reduce tensions in the area, which have risen since border protests began in late March, including cooperating with international mediation efforts to restore and stabilize the cease-fire that ended the 50-day war between Israel and militants in Gaza in 2014.
“We have exhausted all the options, all the possibilities,” he said. “Now is the time for decisions.”
Israel needed to “deal Hamas a strong blow,” Mr. Lieberman added, referring to the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza.
In the wake of the overnight rocket strike in Beersheba, Mr. Lieberman announced that Israel would close the border crossings between Israel and Gaza and restrict the fishing zone off the Gaza coast to three nautical miles.
Those measures came after Mr. Lieberman said he was halting transfers of fuel from Israel into the Gaza Strip in response to the violent protests on Friday. The fuel transfers had been a first sign of progress after weeks of intensive efforts by Egypt and the United Nations to mediate a stable cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
Hamas has been orchestrating weekly demonstrations along the Israeli border for the past six months to protest the blockade of the impoverished Palestinian territory.
The protests, which Palestinians call “The Great Return March,” are intended to highlight Palestinian demands to return to lands that became Israel, and to draw attention to the tight restrictions on the territory Israel has imposed, with Egyptian help, citing security reasons.
Since the protests began, about 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Israel says it is responding to prevent breaches of the fence in violation of its sovereignty and to protect Israeli civilians living near the border. One Israeli soldier has been killed, by sniper fire from Gaza. Palestinians and human rights groups have accused Israel of a heavy-handed approach to the protests that has led to the deaths of many unarmed civilians.
Nonetheless, the overnight rocket fire came as a surprise, coming soon after a delegation of senior Egyptian intelligence officials arrived in Gaza for meetings with Hamas officials to continue discussions toward reaching a truce with Israel and reconciliation between Hamas and its rival, the Palestinian Authority, in the West Bank.
The main Gaza factions suggested in their joint statement that the rocket fire was an attempt to sabotage the Egyptian mediation effort and described it as “irresponsible.”
Sirens sounded in Beersheba around 3.40 a.m., sending residents running to safe rooms and shelters, but Israel’s Iron Dome aerial defense system appeared to have failed to identify the incoming rocket.
The military said that the rocket had hit the children’s bedrooms but that their mother had saved them by rushing them down to a bomb shelter as the siren sounded, with seconds to spare. Television images showed the house severely damaged, with a hole where the rocket had torn through the roof.
Ruti Hai, a neighbor, told Israeli television that it was a “miracle” that everyone survived. She described the mother of the house that was struck, a single mother, as a “true hero.”
Iyad Abuheweila contributed reporting from Gaza City.
Source : Nytimes
