To the residents of Gaza: elections and terrorism have consequences.
The Israeli military began bombing targets throughout the Gaza Strip on Monday evening, some 12 hours after a rocket fired from the coastal enclave slammed into a home in central Israel, injuring seven people.
“At this time, the Israel Defense Forces has started to attack terror targets belonging to the Hamas terror group throughout the Gaza Strip,” the army said in a statement shortly after 5:30 p.m.
Israel began its retaliatory strikes around the same time as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met US President Donald Trump in Washington. In comments from the White House, Netanyahu said “Israel is responding forcefully to this wanton aggression.”
The raids began soon after an Egyptian military intelligence delegation left the Strip, where its attempts to broker a ceasefire reportedly failed. Palestinian media reported strikes on Hamas sites throughout the territory.
There were no immediate reports of Palestinian injuries. The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said it was putting hospitals and ambulances on high alert due to the Israeli strikes.
Israeli drones, helicopters, and fighter jets were spotted in the skies over the Gaza Strip on Monday evening.
Israeli aircraft hit a post in the northern Gaza Strip belonging to Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, with two missiles, according to Shehab, a Gaza-based news site. Strikes were also reported in Khan Younis in the southern Strip and in Gaza City in the center of the enclave.
A number of residents of Gaza City have relocated their cars next to Shifa Medical Center in hopes the vehicles will not be damaged there, as Israel is unlikely to attack a hospital, a resident of the coastal enclave told The Times of Israel.