As Gaza attacks continue, Gantz warns Hamas that IDF can hit human targets too

Defense Minister Benny Gantz told local leaders in southern Israel on Wednesday that all acts of violence emanating from the Gaza Strip will be met with a response, amid continued arson attacks and rocket fire from the Hamas-ruled enclave.

“There are no security violations that don’t receive [a response]. We don’t just know how to strike buildings and targets, but also those operating within them,” he warned.

“The State of Israel has no interest in the Gaza Strip besides the return of the boys and complete quiet,” he added.

Gantz said if that if those conditions were to be met, “we can develop Gaza.”

Hamas is holding civilians Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, two Israelis who entered Gaza of their own accord. It is also holding the bodies of IDF soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, who were killed in 2014.

Over the past week, terrorists in the enclave have again begun launching balloon-borne incendiary and explosive devices into southern Israel, sparking dozens of fires that caused environmental and property damage in the region.

There have also been several rocket attacks on southern Israeli towns, which so far have caused no casualties and little damage.

Those attacks have drawn retaliatory Israeli airstrikes against Hamas installations.

Fire services said there were 28 blazes in the south sparked on Wednesday by balloon-borne incendiary devices launched from Gaza.

Late Tuesday night, Israeli warplanes carried out a series of airstrikes in the Gaza Strip after Palestinians launched a rocket and arson balloons into Israel, sparking numerous fires, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The overnight raids targeted Hamas sites in Gaza, including a military compound belonging to an elite unite of the terror group, the army said, adding that it holds Hamas responsible for all violence emanating from the Strip.

On Tuesday, Gaza officials announced that the Strip’s sole power station had run out of fuel and would stop operating. Israel last Thursday cut off fuel transfers via the Kerem Shalom crossing as a punitive measure following the rocket ad balloon attacks.

Also on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would respond to airborne arson attacks in the same manner it does rocket attacks, and warned that there could be another major flareup in Gaza.

“I regret that we are also preparing, to the extent necessary, for the possibility of a round or rounds. I hope that we will not get there,” he told local leaders of Gaza-area communities.

Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.