Israel downs drone fired from blockaded Gaza City

By Abdel Ra'ouf D. A. R. Arnaout and Said Ibicioglu

JERUSALEM (AA) - The Israeli army said on Friday that its air defense systems destroyed a drone fired from the blockaded Gaza City toward Israel.

“A total of 160 warplanes, departing from six different air bases in Israel, fired around 450 missiles at 150 targets in Gaza within 40 minutes,” Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a statement.

Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas group, said it attacked a chemical plant in Nir Oz with a Shehab drone in response to the ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Meanwhile, Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Palestinian group Islamic Jihad, said it targeted an Israeli position near Gaza with a mortar fire.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, Palestinian resistance groups have fired four drones into Israel since May 12.

Israeli attacks on the blockaded Gaza Strip killed 10 more Palestinians on Friday, pushing the death toll to 119, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The fatalities include 31 children and 19 women, while the number of injured rose to 830.

Israeli warplanes have resumed airstrikes in Gaza, causing heavy damages to residential buildings across the enclave.

Tensions have been running high in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem and at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Damascus Gate since the start of Ramadan as Israeli forces and settlers assaulted Palestinians.

The tensions moved from East Jerusalem to Gaza after Palestinian resistance groups there vowed to retaliate if the assaults did not stop.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz