F16 fighter jet as used by the IDF. Photograph by Peter Mulligan
The familiar sounds of an Israeli airstrike returned to the Gaza Strip today, with Israel targeting “militants” for the first time since the ceasefire that ended the eight-day war in November.
An Israeli spokesman said the airstrike hit a Palestinian “jihadi who was an expert in manufacturing rockets”, a man who they accuse of playing a role in a the rocket attacks on Israel from Egypt’s Sinai peninsula on April 17th. Locals have named the man killed as Haitham Al-Mes-hal, a Hamas nationals security force member and member of a militant Jihadist Salafi organisation according to Reuters.
Militants in Gaza resumed firing rockets into Israel a few weeks ago, with today’s response from Israel the first retaliation from the country. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of a “strong response” to the Palestinian rockets a couple of days ago, although it is not yet clear whether he was referring to this strike or a further escalation of violence.
In West Bank, a Palestinian also killed a settler for the first time since 2011. The attack took place at Tapuah Junction, near the city of Nablus, with reports from witnesses saying that the Palestinian originally stabbed the settler, before stealing his gun and shooting him.
There are reports of a Palestinian school bus being attacked by 30 Israeli settlers near to Nablus, with other settlers setting fire to the land at nearby Asira al-Qibliya in possible retaliatory attacks, and IDF personnel firing tear gas cannisters towards protesters in the nearby town of Urif.
Israeli settlers attacked a bus carrying school children girls are being treated for trauma 1 girl taken to hospital pic.twitter.com/5WzbHb3UnS
— Tweet_Palestine (@Tweet_Palestine) April 30, 2013
Violence has flared in the West Bank recently between the IDF and Palestinians protesting against the continued incarceration of a group of Palestinians currently on hunger strikes in Israeli prisons over their treatment. There have been nine Palestinians killed on the West Bank since the start of the year.
Israel currently has around 500,000 Jews living in 100 settlements in the West Bank which are deemed illegal under international law as they are built outside Israel’s UN-sanctioned 1967 borders. Israeli settlers continue to build new settlements and expand those currently established, often with much protest from the Palestinian community.
