At Least 12 Killed, Multiple Injured After IDF Issues Strikes Across Gaza Strip
00:16 GMT 09.05.2023 (Updated: 03:52 GMT 09.05.2023)
© AP Photo / Fatima Shbair
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The 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. Figures released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health detailed that at least 12 were killed and multiple others were injured.
A message initially issued by the IDF stated forces attacked "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.
Gaza is under attack. pic.twitter.com/TQNeD28ytI
— Muhammad Smiry 🇵🇸 (@MuhammadSmiry) May 8, 2023
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. A release issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Health revealed 12 Palestinians were killed as a result of Israeli airstrikes, and that another 20 individuals sustained injuries. Reports indicate three Islamic Jihad commanders are among the fatalities.
Ashraf Kedra, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Health Ministry, told Sputnik that a Russian citizen, Jamal Abu Haswan, "died in Gaza City as a result of shelling by the Israel Defense Forces." Abu Haswan served as the head of a medical facility in the Gaza Strip.
Hours after the agency first announced its airstrikes, officials stated that the launches were carried out to prevent "security stability" from being undermined, adding that the senior officials who were targeted were "involved in organizing additional attacks against Israeli citizens and IDF over time."
The IDF release further detailed that 40 planes had participated in the strikes, and that in addition to the three commanders killed, officials targeted 10 sites where ammunition and rockets were allegedly produced."
"At this stage we have achieved what we set for ourselves, we have hit those who were needed and if necessary we will deepen the attacks more," a translation of the release reads. "We are prepared for any scenario. We called the operation 'Shield and Arrow,' it is an operation in defense and attack."
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.
