BICOM

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Wednesday night released details of six of the 65 sites it bombed on Tuesday in the Gaza Strip in response to an extensive missile attack

The targets included two Hamas drone facilities, a storage depot of shoulder-fired SA-7 missiles, a rocket manufacturing factory, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) depot for storing locally produced missiles, a depot for unmanned submarines, and the Hamas-run naval armoury, which the IDF said contained “advanced, unmanned submarine vessels, capable of maritime infiltration and carrying out maritime terror attacks”.

The head of the IDF’s Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir, said Hamas and other military groups in the Gaza Strip were “very deeply deterred” by the air force’s bombardments of valuable targets. “I think at this point, there’s a significant achievement for us … there is a lack of will and desire to reach a situation of another full-scale campaign,” Zamir said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the retaliatory raid was “the hardest blow we have dealt them [Hamas] in years”. Blaming Hamas, PIJ and other organisations for the escalation, Netanyahu warned: “When they test us, they pay immediately. And if they continue testing us, they will pay dearly.”

Yedioth Ahronot quoted a senior Hamas official yesterday, who said: “After the resistance forces succeeded in warding off Israeli aggression and preventing a change to the rules of the game, external forces intervened and brought the sides back to the cease-fire agreement and the commitment to keep the quiet.” A Palestinian official said the Egyptian mediation did not go beyond a “restoration of calm on both sides,” according to Palestinian media.

Israel’s Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz told Israel Radio that there was an “indirect agreement with Hamas to end the current round of fighting”.

The IDF Home Front command said in the 22 hours, from 7.00 AM local time Tuesday to 5.15 AM Wednesday, sirens were triggered 166 times in southern Israel by 180 missiles, mortars and heavy machine gun fire from the Gaza Strip. In response, Israel bombed 65 targets in the Gaza Strip belonging to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.