Israel Attacks more than 30 Locations in the Gaza Strip

Gaza_ The Israeli air force bombed more than 30 targets in Gaza today, which could be a prelude to Israel's major armed actions against the besieged Palestinian coastal enclave, Prensa Latina reports.

Local sources say that Israeli jets launched seven missiles at a site of the Al Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Jihad movement and another of the airstrikes went against the town of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, the bombing was carried out in response to the firing this morning from the Strip of 28 mortar shells at locations in southern Israel such as Eshkol, Shaar Hanegev and Sdot Negev, adjacent to Gaza.

On that occasion, the Israeli Iron Dome missile system intercepted most of the projectiles, which, according to the IDF, would have been fired by the Islamic Jihad movement.

In a statement, the IDF argued that "from our point of view, Hamas is responsible for what happens in the strip. Just as it allowed for calm, now it is allowing noise. In fact, it was the Islamic Jihad that fired (the mortars), but Hamas has the responsibility. '

For its part, the Israeli Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, confirmed that today, at noon, "we attacked the terrorist infrastructure massively and powerfully."

Israel considers the Palestinian Hamas movement as a terrorist organization.

Among the bombed targets, the IDF detailed, there is a tunnel allegedly going 900 meters into Israeli territory.

Shortly before, also today, the Israeli artillery laced more than 10 howitzers against several towns east of Gaza City with one person killed and one injured, according to the spokesman of the Gaza Health Ministry, Ashraf Al Qidra.

As part of the seemingly endless cycle of violence generated by the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, the mortar attack from Gaza was carried out in response to the death on Sunday of three Palestinians in the southern city of Rafah, two of them fighters from the Al Quds Brigades.

This is the most serious incident of that kind since the Marches for the Return began in Gaza on March 30, during which some 120 unarmed Palestinians have been killed by Israeli repression, while another two thousand have been wounded.