Israel’s military says it targeted Hamas positions after IED on border injured four troops

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Israel has used jets and tanks to strike the Gaza Strip in response to the explosion of an improvised explosive device that wounded four of its soldiers, marking one of the most severe escalations of violence since the 2014 war.

Gaza’s Hamas-run government said two Palestinian 17-year-olds were killed by Israeli tank fire during Saturday night’s attacks, sending photos to journalists of what appeared to be two bodies on stretchers.

Israel’s military said its fighter jets attacked “18 terror targets belonging to the Hamas terror organisation”.

“Eight targets were attacked in a military compound near Deir el-Balah, which belongs to the Hamas terror organisation, including weapon-manufacturing and training infrastructures,” it said in a statement.

An underground tunnel used by militants was also hit, the army said, while residents in Gaza reported explosives had landed in a farmer’s field.

No militant factions in Gaza immediately claimed responsibility for Saturday’s explosion. Several armed Islamist groups operate from the enclave, but the Israeli military says it holds Hamas accountable for all Gazan violence directed towards Israel.

Its spokesman Lt Col Jonathan Conricus said the IED, attached to a flag, was planted during a demonstration along the fence with Israel on Friday. The bomb severely wounded two of the four soldiers when they attempted to remove the flag.

Speaking at a security conference in Munich on Saturday, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, described the border blast as very serious and said he would “respond appropriately”.

A rocket from the Gaza Strip hit a home in the southern Israeli community of Sha’ar Hanegev on Saturday evening, damaging the roof but causing no injuries, Israeli media reported. Warning sirens were activated throughout the night.

Hamas and Israel have fought three wars during the past decade, and Israel has recently moved to dismantle tunnels it says militants are using to burrow into its territory.



Frustration among Palestinians has risen since Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December. The declaration led the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to reject the US’s historical role as a peace mediator.

Will Abbas’s ‘Eff off, Trump’ fury play into the hands of rightwing Israelis? | Ian Black Read more

Sporadic protests broke out in the West Bank and Gaza following the US president’s move, including at Gaza’s border with Israel.

An Israeli blockade, imposed in 2007 after Hamas seized control, has tightly controlled the movement of people and goods out of the territory. The Israeli military says it aims to prevent Hamas from obtaining weapons, and Egypt has also largely closed its border.

Warnings of a brewing humanitarian disaster for Gaza’s 2 million residents have also led to fears of an increase in violence.

Trump has threatened to cut aid to the Palestinians, and his government has targeted UNRWA, the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees which runs schools and hospitals in Gaza.

Abbas has also refused to pay for Gaza’s electricity, in part to press Hamas to loosen its control of the area, but payments are expected to resume. The World Health Organisation said last month that hospitals in Gaza faced almost total power blackouts.