Gaza terror groups claim overnight rocket salvo

A coalition of Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday took responsibility for the overnight launch of over a dozen rockets at Israel.

The barrage came after the Israeli military said aircraft and a tank struck two Hamas observation posts in northern Gaza and the vehicle of a member of the terror group involved in launching flaming kites and balloons toward Israel.

“A strike will be answered with a strike,” the terror groups said, according to the Ynet news site.

Despite the joint claim of responsibility, Hebrew media reports quoted Palestinians sources saying Hamas, the terror group that rules Gaza, was behind the rocket salvo.

“The Hamas terror organization will bear the cost of terror and instability,” the Israel Defense Forces said earlier. Israel routinely holds Hamas, which rules the Strip, responsible for all violence emanating from the enclave.

According to the IDF, three of the rockets reached Israeli territory, two of which it said were likely intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system.

There were no reports of casualties or damage in Israel. In addition, no rocket impacts were reported inside Israeli communities.

In the hours following the flareup, the army and the relevant regional councils held a “situational assessment” meeting and decided to allow schools to open as usual on Wednesday. No special instructions were given to residents of the area, according to local government officials.

Palestinians said the vehicle that was hit belonged to one of the Hamas terror group’s field commanders and was parked in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp. There were no casualties reported, indicating the car was empty at the time.

In recent weeks, the military has adopted a policy of targeting Hamas positions in response to repeated incendiary kite and balloon attacks from Gaza in an effort to force the group, which rules the coastal enclave, to stop launching the arson devices and to force others in the Strip to abandon the tactic as well.

However, Hamas is attempting to maintain that the near-constant airborne arson attacks, which have burned thousands of acres of Israeli land, do not warrant retaliatory strikes by Israel and therefore accuses Jerusalem of violating the tacit ceasefire between the two sides.

It was the third such exchange between Israel and Hamas in recent weeks. On June 18 and 20, Hamas and its ally the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad launched similar rocket and mortar attacks at southern Israel after the IDF conducted airstrikes against Hamas positions in response to repeated arson attacks.

Since March 30, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have launched countless kites, balloons and inflated latex condoms bearing flammable materials, and occasionally explosives, into Israeli territory, sparking near-daily fires that have burned thousands of acres of farmland, parks and forests.

Israeli leaders have warned that the military is prepared to take more intense offensive action against the phenomenon.

Israeli leaders have been split on how to respond to those responsible for the airborne arson attacks, with some calling for the IDF to shoot the kite flyers and balloon launchers on sight, while others argue that it would be a step too far.