It has been reported that at least 10 people have been killed after some of the Israeli forces had hit some targets in Gaza, Palestinian health officials reported on Friday.
Among the dead was a five-year-old, and 44 people were wounded in the strikes, added officials. Palestinian officials claimed one of those who had died was a senior militant.
Israel said it was targeting the Islamic Jihad group and the strikes came after tensions were heightened following the arrest of a senior militant, Bassam al-Saadi, in the occupied West Bank earlier this week.
Read Also: Israeli Air Raids Target Gaza For Second Time After Ceasefire
“The Israeli government will not allow terrorist organisations in the Gaza Strip to set the agenda in the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip and threaten the citizens of the state of Israel,” the prime minister, Yair Lapid said in a statement.
“Anyone who tries to harm Israel should know: we will find you.”
Israel said it was targeting militants in an operation named “Breaking Dawn”. It also announced a “special situation” on the home front, with schools closed and limits placed on other activities in communities within 50 miles of the border.
The strikes risk igniting yet another war in the territory, which is ruled by the Islamic militant group Hamas and is home to about 2 million Palestinians. The assassination of a senior militant is likely to be met by rocket fire from Gaza, pushing the region closer to all-out war.
Israel on Saturday morning struck Gaza with multiple missiles after rockets were launched from the territory even as US President Joe Biden continued a tour of the Middle East that included Israel and Saudi Arabia.
In another report, the Israeli military disclosed on Saturday morning that it hit a rocket-manufacturing site in central Gaza run by Hamas, which governs the blockaded strip.
According to reporters on the scene, people were woken up by the sound of the explosions and that more than a dozen missiles had targeted two separate locations in the territory.
She also pointed out that while no one had been reported injured, ‘there was a lot of material damage. We could see a lot of fires at the site and the land surrounding it.’
