Explosions Ring Out Across Gaza Strip as IDF Conducts Airstrikes

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Fire and smoke rise following an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza Strip, Friday, April 7, 2023. The Israeli military has struck targets in the Gaza Strip, pushing the region toward a wider conflagration after a day of rocket fire along the country’s northern and southern borders. The fighting follows two days of unrest at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site. As Israeli aircraft began striking Gaza, Palestinian militants quickly fired off a new barrage of rockets, setting off air raid sirens across southern Israel.InternationalIndiaAfricaThe Tuesday airstrike follows days after Israeli and Palestinian forces fired rockets at one another in the wake of the death of Khader Adnan, a Palestinian prisoner who died while on a hunger strike in an Israeli prison.Explosions rang out across the Gaza Strip early Tuesday as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced it was carrying out airstrikes against militant positions.A message issued by the IDF states that forces were “attacking targets of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip.”Video of the airstrikes have since surfaced on social media, with images capturing plumes of smoke and destroyed buildings.

Video showing aftermath of @IDF air strike on an apartment where senior PIJ officials were staying. #Israel pic.twitter.com/hTq8Y1sTnS

— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) May 8, 2023

Strikes were reportedly issued in a number of areas, including Rafah and Khan Younis.Local media reports suggest the strikes caused the death of ‘some’ militants; however, figures remained unconfirmed as does the extent of structural damages. A release issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Health revealed nine Palestinians were killed as a result of Israeli airstrikes, and that “several” had sustained injuries.The latest firings come days after more than 100 rockets were exchanged between Israeli and Palestinian forces last week, when tensions escalated in response to the death of imprisoned Palestinian Khader Adnan. Palestinian officials referred to Adnan’s death as being part of a “deliberate assassination” since Israel repeatedly denied any of his release requests. At the time of his death, Adnan had been on a hunger strike for almost three months. He was found unconscious in his prison cell.Over the last several years rocket exchanges between Israeli and Palestinian officials have become nearly commonplace; however the most serious took place during May 2021 in response to the mass forced evictions of Palestinian families in land seized by the Israeli government through the court system.

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