Hamas fires rockets towards Tel Aviv for the first time in months
Hamas has fired a barrage of rockets from Gaza towards Tel Aviv for the first time in months.
The attacks, seven months into Israel’s offensive on Gaza, were the first long range strikes from Gaza since January, according to Associated Press.
There were no immediate reports of casualties from the attack.
Hamas’ military wing, Al Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack, while AP reported rocket launches were heard in central Gaza.
Israeli military said eight rockets were launched from the south Gazan city of Rafah, and that Israel intercepted “a number” of them.
Israel launched a military offensive on Rafah in recent weeks, and continued its attack this weekend despite the UN’s top court calling for the country to immediately stop its strikes.
More than one million people have fled from Rafah since Israel began its offensive, according to AP.
The war has killed nearly 36,000 Gazans since October, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza. Officials from the United Nations say part of Gaza is suffering from famine, while about 80 per cent of Gaza’s population has fled their homes.
Israel launched its offensive on Gaza after Hamas militants crossed the border from Gaza on October 7, killed around 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages back into Gaza.
Aid trucks entered Gaza from southern Israel earlier on Sunday, after US president Joe Biden and his Egyptian counterpart, President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, brokered a deal allowing aid to bypass the closed Rafah crossing.
The aid passed instead through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing. But the fighting makes it unclear whether aid agencies will be able to access the humanitarian aid. Little aid has made it to Rafah since Israel began its assault.
United Nations agencies say it is often too dangerous to reach the aid when it has made it into Gaza.
