Hamas on Tuesday launched two rockets at Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial center, in response to Israeli airstrikes in Gaza that resulted in the deaths of at least 19 Palestinians. This marked the first time since May that Hamas has claimed to fire rockets at Tel Aviv.
According to the Israeli military, there were no casualties in Israel from the rockets. One rocket landed in the sea, while the other did not make it to Israeli territory.
“We have bombed the city of Tel Aviv and its suburbs with two ‘M90′ missiles in response to the Zionist massacres against civilians and the deliberate displacement of our people,” the Hamas’ military wing said in a statement.
The last time Hamas claimed to have fired rockets at Tel Aviv was in May.
Israeli airstrikes
Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes resulted in the deaths of 19 Palestinians in the central and southern Gaza Strip today.
In Deir Al-Balah, an airstrike killed at least six people, including a mother and her four-day-old twin babies. Seven more Palestinians were killed in a strike on a house in the nearby Al-Bureij camp.
Additionally, four individuals were killed in two separate strikes on the Al-Maghazi camp in central Gaza and Rafah in the south. Two more were killed in a strike on a house in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City in the north.
The Israeli military and both Islamic Jihad and Hamas reported ongoing clashes in multiple areas of Gaza.
According to the Israeli military, they have targeted Palestinian gunmen and dismantled military structures in Khan Younis, located weapons and explosives in Rafah, and struck rocket launchers and sniper positions in central Gaza.
Ceasefire
Earlier on Monday, the US confirmed that the Gaza ceasefire talks scheduled for Thursday would proceed as planned and that an agreement was still within reach. According to media reports, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was set to travel on Tuesday for discussions in Qatar, Egypt, and Israel.
The Israeli government announced it would send a delegation to finalize the details of the agreement proposal during Thursday’s talks.
However, Hamas is insisting on a viable plan for implementing the proposal put forward by US President Joe Biden in May, rather than just more discussions.
Reuters reported a Hamas official, who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the issue, stating, “Our statement the other day was clear: what is needed is the implementation, not more negotiation.”
The conflict began on October 7 when Hamas-led fighters breached Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages back to Gaza.
Since then, nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza. The conflict has left much of the enclave in ruins and displaced most of its population.
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