Blasts rock Gaza as conflict flares

Agencies | Gaza City                                 

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com   

Rocket attacks on Israel by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement and retaliation by Israeli jets rocked Gaza yesterday as terrified residents said they fear “any minute a war can happen.”

“There is worry and there is fear, any minute a war can happen. With any clash in the West Bank, there can be war along the borders in Gaza,” said 50-year-old Abdallah Al-Husary.

“We didn’t sleep the whole night, bombing and missiles,” she said. Fears are rife in Gaza that the already unpredictable conflict could spiral out of control, triggering a broader confrontation between Palestinians and Israel.

Rockets from Gaza also set off alarms in Israeli communities near the border with the blockaded southern coastal strip that is controlled by Hamas. The attacks come amid international efforts to defuse tensions following one of the deadliest raids in the occupied West Bank in years.

There were no reports of casualties on either side and there was no immediate sign of escalation into a more serious conflict. The overnight exchange followed an Israeli raid on a refugee camp in the West Bank on Thursday that killed at least nine Palestinians, bringing the Palestinian death toll so far in 2023 to at least 30.

In the Jabalya refugee camp, one of the movement’s leaders, Khaled Al-Batsh claimed responsibility for the rocket strikes and said Israel could not isolate Gaza from the West Bank.

“The Jerusalem Brigades’s rocket unit responded,” he said. The US State Department issued a statement on Thursday saying it was “deeply concerned” with the violence in the West Bank and urged both sides to de-escalate the conflict.