JERUSALEM (JTA) — Hamas is responsible for every attack originating from Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, following rocket attacks from the coastal strip that scored a direct hit on a home in southern Israel.
“Immediately after the firing at the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip, I convened a discussion of the security leadership at the Defense Ministry. I ordered that we attack a series of objectives; therefore, the air force attacked them. You could certainly be impressed by the power of the assault,” Netanyahu, who also serves as Israel’s Defense Minister, said Sunday morning at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting.
Eight rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system during three waves of rocket attacks on Friday evening. Another rocket landed in an open area and one hit the home in Sderot.
The family living in the home were not injured since they took shelter in a protected room when they heard the Code Red rocket alert sound.
A rocket also was fired at southern Israel from Gaza on Thursday night.
No terror groups in Gaza have claimed responsibility for the attacks, though Israeli media reports indicate that it likely was Islamic Jihad.
The Israel Defense Forces responded to the rocket attacks with air strikes on several Hamas targets, including a naval base and training compound; a weapons manufacturing plant; and a terror tunnel.
Hamas called the Israeli airstrikes a “dangerous escalation” that would lead to “consequences and ramifications.”
“A government which I head will not tolerate a threat against southern residents, and will not accept any injury to Israeli sovereignty,” Benny Gantz said Saturday night in a tweet. “We will restore deterrence at any price, even if we need to harm those personally who are leading the escalation.”
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