Israel has hit Gaza with multiple missiles after launching rockets from the ground as US President Joe Biden continued a Middle East tour that included Israel and Saudi Arabia. The Israeli military said early Saturday it had struck a rocket-making site in central Gaza run by Hamas, which rules the blockaded strip. Al Jazeera’s Youmna ElSayed, reporting from Gaza, said people were awakened by the sound of explosions and that more than a dozen rockets had targeted two different locations in the territory. He added that while no injuries were reported, “there was a lot of property damage. We could see a lot of fires on the site and the land surrounding it.” Most of the area around the site was agricultural, he said. Full update: “The moment Israeli occupation warplanes hit a Palestinian resistance site in the Al-Nusirate camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip early this morning.” #GazaUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/UB4XbxKAiD — Quds News Network (@QudsNen) July 16, 2022 Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said it was no coincidence that the Israeli raids took place immediately after Biden’s visit to Israel. “This escalation, which came immediately after US President Biden’s visit to the Zionist entity, reflects the amount of American support and encouragement the Israeli occupation has received to continue its aggression and commit its crimes,” it said. in his statement. . Earlier, sirens sounded twice in southern Israel to warn residents of incoming rockets. One was intercepted and three landed in open areas, the Israeli military said. No group has claimed responsibility for the missile launch. Israel fired rockets into Gaza last month, again after rockets were fired from the besieged enclave after a period of relative calm. It said it was targeting Hamas military installations, but Palestinian authorities said the rockets fell on farmland. In May 2021, Israel launched an 11-day offensive on Gaza that killed 253 Palestinians, including 66 children, and injured more than 1,900 people. At least 12 people, including three foreign workers and two children, were killed in Israel by rockets fired by Hamas and other armed groups from Gaza during the same period. On Friday, during a visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank, US President Joe Biden vowed not to abandon peace efforts but offered no new proposals to restart the process.
