Israel’s military said Thursday it carried out airstrikes against targets linked to Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip in response to a series of rockets fired hours earlier at Israeli territory.
The Israeli Defense Forces said the airstrikes focused on a weapons manufacturing site and a military compound.
Israel’s air defenses intercepted five of the six rockets fired from Gaza, with one landing in an open area in southern Israel.
The cross-border attacks followed an Israeli raid Wednesday in the occupied West Bank that killed 11 Palestinians.
Israel said it was conducting an operation to detain militants in Nablus, and that its forces came under fire, setting off a gun battle.
Palestinian health officials said more than 100 Palestinians were wounded.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a U.N. meeting Wednesday that the situation “is at its most combustible in years.”
“Deadly cycles of violence keep accelerating. Tensions are sky high. And the peace process remains stalled,” Guterres said as he advocated a push for a two-state solution.
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters it is critical for the two sides to not take any steps to inflame tensions.
“We recognize the very real security concerns facing Israel,” Price said. “At the same time, we are deeply concerned by the large number of injuries and the loss of civilian lives.”
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
