CAIRO/JERUSALEM:
Hamas said it fired rockets into Tel Aviv on Sunday, prompting sirens to sound in the Israeli city for the first time in four months, as the Palestinian group sought a show of military force despite Israel’s offensive on Gaza.
Israel’s military said eight missiles were detected passing through the Rafah area, the southern tip of the Gaza Strip where Israel has continued operations despite a UN top court order ordering it to stop attacking the city.
The Israeli military said a number of the missiles were intercepted. Israeli emergency services said they had received no reports of casualties.
In a statement on its Telegram channel, the Hamas al-Qassam Brigades said the rockets were fired in response to “Zionist massacres against civilians.”
Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV reported that the rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip.
Rafah is about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Tel Aviv.
Also read: Israeli forces kill dozens of Palestinians as they push deeper into northern and southern Gaza
Israel says it wants to root out Hamas fighters in Rafah and rescue hostages it says are being held in the area, but its offensive has worsened civilian suffering and sparked an international outcry.
On Sunday, Israeli strikes killed at least five Palestinians in Rafah, according to local medical services.
Israeli tanks have probed the city’s edges, near the main southern crossing point into Egypt, but have yet to enter the city in force.
After the rockets were fired, Israel’s hardline public security minister Itamar Ben Gvir – who is not a member of Israel’s war cabinet – urged the military to hit Rafa harder.
“Rafa in full force,” he posted on X.
Nearly 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Israel launched the operation after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israeli communities on October 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli accounts.
Fighting also continued Sunday in the northern Gaza Strip of Jambaliya, a heavily built-up area that saw weeks of heavy fighting earlier in the war. During a raid, the military said it found a weapons cache with dozens of missile components and weapons at a school.
He denied Hamas claims that Palestinian militants had kidnapped an Israeli soldier.
Truce talks
Efforts to agree a cessation of fighting and the return of more than 100 hostages still held in Gaza have been blocked for weeks, but there were some signs of movement after meetings between Israeli and US intelligence officials and Qatar’s prime minister.
An official familiar with the matter said a decision was made to resume talks this week based on new proposals from Egyptian and Qatari mediators and with “active US involvement.”
However, a Hamas official downplayed the report, saying Reuters: “It’s not true.”
Read: Aid trucks expected to begin entering Gaza via Kerem Shalom crossing
Izzat El-Reshiq, a senior Hamas official in exile, said the group had received nothing from mediators on new dates for resuming talks, as reported by Israeli media.
Reshik reiterated Hamas’ demands, which include: “An end to the aggression completely and permanently, in the entire Gaza Strip, not just in Rafah.”
While Israel seeks the return of the hostages, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said the war will not end until Hamas is eliminated.
Aid trucks enter Gaza
Israel has faced calls for more aid to Gaza after more than seven months of war that has caused widespread destruction and starvation in the enclave.
Israel prepared on Sunday to allow about 200 aid trucks to enter Gaza through Kerem Shalom on the southeastern edge of the Palestinian enclave, bypassing the main Rafah crossing that has been blocked for weeks.
Following an agreement between US President Joe Biden and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Friday to temporarily send aid through the crossing.
said Khaled Zayed, an official of the Egyptian Red Crescent Reuters 200 aid trucks, including four fuel trucks, were expected to enter on Sunday through the Kerem Shalom crossing.
A food aid truck sits abandoned near the entrance to the Kerem Shalom border crossing as military operations continue in the southern Gaza city of Rafah in an area outside Kerem Shalom, Israel May 17, 2024. PHOTO: REUTERS
Egypt’s state broadcaster Al Qahera News shared a video on social media platform X showing aid trucks entering Kerem Shalom, which before the conflict was the main commercial crossing point between Israel, Egypt and Gaza.
The Rafah crossing has been closed for nearly three weeks since Israel took control of the Palestinian side of the crossing as it stepped up its offensive in the area on May 6.
Egypt is increasingly concerned about the prospect of large numbers of Palestinians entering its territory from Gaza and has refused to open its side of the Rafah crossing.
Israel has said it is not restricting aid flows and has opened new crossings in the north, as well as cooperating with the United States, which has built a temporary floating jetty for aid deliveries.
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