Israeli army claims it detected 2 rockets fired from Gaza

By Said Amori

JERUSALEM (AA) - The Israeli army claimed Saturday that it detected two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip toward the adjacent Gaza envelope.

The Israeli broadcasting authority said the army “detected the launch of two rockets from the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, where one was intercepted by the Iron Dome system, while the other exploded in an open area near the Kfar Aza settlement.”

It was the second time Saturday that sirens sounded in the Gaza envelope area, but no rockets were announced to have been detected the first time.

Despite a decrease in the frequency of rocket launches by Palestinian factions from Gaza at cities and settlements in southern and central Israel during the last month, the army occasionally announces the detection of rockets from the enclave.

The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad resistance group, said on Telegram: "We targeted the occupied cities and settlements of the Gaza envelope with blessed rocket barrages,” without providing details.

The detection of the rockets came after the Israeli army announced Saturday that it had liberated four hostages in a special operation in the Nuseirat refugee camp, while Israeli police announced the killing of an officer from the Yamam special unit as a result of injuries he sustained during the operation.

The Hamas-run Government Media Office said at least 210 Palestinians were killed and more than 400 injured in airstrikes targeting the Nuseirat refugee camp, areas east of Deir al-Balah and the al-Bureij and al-Maghazi camps in central Gaza, coinciding with a sudden incursion of vehicles east and northwest of Nuseirat.​​​​​​​

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7 despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

More than 36,800 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and over 83,600 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala