Israel says it intercepted rocket fired from Gaza Strip: Occupation army

AP , Wednesday 1 Feb 2023

Militants fired a rocket into Israel's south on Wednesday, the occupation army said, setting off sirens and raising already heightened tensions under the country's new ultranationalist government.

Israel
AFP


The rocket from the Gaza Strip was intercepted, according to the military. Israel usually responds to rocket fire with airstrikes, raising the possibility of further escalation.

Israel's rescue service said it received no reports of injuries except for a 50-year-old woman who slipped and fell while running to a shelter.

The action in Israel's skies Wednesday comes after Gaza's ruling Hamas group has threatened Israel over the combative stance of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has promised harsh treatment of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.

From the occupied West Bank to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, many Palestinians revere prisoners as heroes for the Palestinian cause.

Ben-Gvir said the new rocket fire from Gaza won't stop him from implementing his punitive policies against Palestinian detainees. He called for an urgent Security Cabinet meeting to discuss a response.

Israeli violence against the Palestinians has spiked in recent days as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited with a call for calm.

An Israeli military raid on a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin last week killed 10. The next day, a Palestinian shooting attack in an east Jerusalem Jewish settlement killed seven people.

A separate east Jerusalem shooting over the weekend by a 13-year-old Palestinian wounded two Israelis.

Following the unrest, Tel Aviv approved a series of punitive steps against the Palestinians and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday vowed to strengthen Jewish settlements in the occupied part of the West Bank, under full Israeli control. 

Hamas issued a statement Tuesday condemning alleged assaults by prison guards against Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, specifically female detainees.

The Israeli Prison Service said the problems started last Friday when it placed dozens of Palestinian prisoners in solitary confinement after they celebrated the Palestinian attack in east Jerusalem.

In an unrelated move, the prison service removed televisions from three cells in Israel's Ofer Prison near the city of Ramallah.

Amani Srahneh from the Palestinian Prisoners Club, a group representing former and current prisoners, said the "escalatory measures and this new Israeli government's policy of inciting against prisoners'' was creating "a very tense situation.''

* This story has been edited by Ahram Online

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