Hamas claims rocket fire on Tel Aviv on 1st anniversary of Gaza genocide

By Abdelraouf Arnaout and Iyad Nabolsi

JERUSALEM (AA) - Palestinian resistance group Hamas said Monday it fired a volley of rockets at Tel Aviv on the first anniversary of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

The group’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said the rocket fire was in response to “Israeli massacres against civilians and the deliberate displacement of our people.”

The Israeli army confirmed that five projectiles were fired from Khan Younis in southern Gaza into central Israel.

The rocket fire set off sirens in Tel Aviv and surrounding towns. Israel’s national ambulance service Magen David Adom said two women were lightly injured in the attack.

The rocket fire came as Israel continued its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since a Hamas attack last year, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.

Nearly 42,000 people have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 97,100 others injured, according to local health authorities.

The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the territory amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.

Mediation efforts led by the US, Egypt, and Qatar to reach a Gaza cease-fire and prisoner swap agreement between Israel and Hamas have failed over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to halt the war.

Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul