Hamas armed wing al-Qassam Brigades said that it launched a "big missile" attack on Tel Aviv yesterday as the Israeli military sounded sirens in the central city warning of possible incoming rockets.
In a statement on its Telegram channel yesterday, al-Qassam Brigades said the rockets were launched in response to what it called "Zionist massacres against civilians". Hamas Al-Aqsa TV said the rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip.
Rocket sirens had not been heard in Tel Aviv for the past four months. The reason for the sirens was not immediately stated by the Israeli military. The attack signaled the Islamist faction was still able to fire long-range rockets despite more than seven months of devastating Israeli military offensive from the air and the ground.
The Israeli military said that eight projectiles crossed into Israel after being launched from the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where Israeli forces recently launched an incursion. Israel's Iron Dome defence system intercepted several of the missiles, it added.
Al Jazeera journalist Imran Khan reported that rocket attack will be seen as failure of Israeli army. It is an incredibly wide area affected in the rocket attack at Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Petah Tikva. It goes to show that Hamas – after 228 days of war – still have the capability of attacking Israel.
When that first barrage came over, no one
believed that it was by Hamas. Everyone thought, “OK, this is Hezbollah attacking us from Lebanon” because they thought the capability of Hamas had been destroyed.That’s going to be a problem for the Israeli army and a political problem for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but more importantly, it’s going to be seen as a failure of the Israeli army. It’s going to have an impact on the ceasefire talks which are reportedly due to begin again on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, In Israel, Netanyahu government is facing growing pressure to make a deal with Hamas to free its remaining hostages after several bodies were recovered recently. There were large protests in Tel Aviv on Saturday night, with scuffles breaking out between protesters and police.
Now in its eighth month, the Israel-Hamas war has killed almost 36,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. The vast majority of Gaza's two million-strong population has been displaced. Hamas's attack on Israel on 7 October last year killed 1,200 people, with militants taking some 250 hostages, around 100 of whom remain in captivity in Gaza.
It should be noted that Slovania’s top diplomat Tanja Fajon discusses with Al Jazeera her country’s Palestine recognition process. In a bold move on the global stage, Slovenia has joined a coalition of European Union countries in a significant diplomatic initiative: the recognition of a Palestinian state. This step not only raises pivotal questions about the influence of smaller nations in global diplomacy but also underscores their potential to reshape entrenched geopolitical narratives.
ZH
