Hamas rocket attack from Gaza triggers air raid sirens in Tel Aviv for the first time in months

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas fired a barrage of rockets from Gaza on Sunday that set off air raid sirens as far away as Tel Aviv for the first time in months, demonstrating its resilience more than seven months after Israel began a massive air, sea and ground offensive.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in what appeared to be the first long-range rocket attack from Gaza since January. Hamas’ military wing claimed responsibility for the attack. Palestinian militants have sporadically fired rockets and mortar shells at communities along the Gaza border, and the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group said later on Sunday that it had fired rockets at nearby communities.

The Israeli military said eight missiles crossed the Israeli border after being fired from the area of ​​the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where Israeli forces recently launched an incursion. It said “a number” of the missiles were intercepted, and military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the Rafah launch had been destroyed.

Aid trucks began arriving in Gaza from southern Israel on Sunday morning, bypassing the Rafah border crossing with Egypt after Israeli forces seized the Palestinian side of the crossing earlier this month. However, due to the fighting, it was not immediately clear whether humanitarian organizations would be able to access the aid.

Egypt refuses to reopen its side of the Rafah crossing until control of the Gaza side is returned to the Palestinians. After a phone call between US President Joe Biden and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, they agreed to temporarily divert traffic through the Israeli Kerem Shalom crossing, Gaza’s main cargo terminal.

But the Kerem Shalom border crossing is largely inaccessible because of the Israeli offensive in Rafah. Israel says it has allowed hundreds of trucks to pass through, but UN agencies say it is often too dangerous to retrieve the aid.

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was in Rafah on Sunday and was informed about the “intensification of operations” there, his office said.

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, nearly 36,000 Palestinians have died in the war between Israel and Hamas, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters. The Health Ministry said the bodies of 81 people killed in Israeli attacks had been brought to hospitals in the past 24 hours. Israel blames Hamas for the civilian casualties because the militants operate in densely populated residential areas.

About 80 percent of the 2.3 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip have fled their homes, there is widespread hunger and UN officials are talking about a famine in parts of the area.

The war was triggered by Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7. Palestinian militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 hostages. Hamas is still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of around 30 others, after most of the remaining hostages were released as part of a ceasefire last year.

The war has also heightened tensions in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Palestinian authorities said on Sunday that Israeli forces had shot dead a 14-year-old boy near the southern West Bank town of Saeer. The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

South Gaza is largely cut off from aid

The south of the Gaza Strip has been largely cut off from aid supplies since the Israeli attack on Rafah on May 6. Since then, more than a million Palestinians, many of them already homeless, have fled the city.

Egyptian state television Al-Qahera aired footage of trucks allegedly heading to Gaza through Kerem Shalom. Khaled Zayed, chairman of the Egyptian Red Crescent in the Sinai Peninsula, which handles aid deliveries from the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, said 200 trucks carrying aid and four tankers were due to be sent to Kerem Shalom on Sunday.

Northern Gaza is receiving aid via two land routes that Israel opened amid global outrage after seven aid workers were killed in Israeli attacks in April.

A few dozen trucks enter Gaza every day via a US-built floating pier, but the capacity is far below the 150 trucks per day that authorities had hoped for. Aid organizations estimate that 600 trucks per day are needed.

ISRAEL ARRESTS MAN FOR MUTINY THREAT

Israel’s military said it had arrested a suspect over a widely circulated video in which a man dressed as a soldier threatens mutiny. In the video, the man says tens of thousands of soldiers were prepared to disobey the defense minister when he suggested that Palestinians should rule Gaza after the war, and pledged loyalty to Netanyahu alone.

Military spokesman Hagari said the man had been discharged from reserve service. The man was not publicly identified. It was not clear when and where the video was recorded. The prime minister’s office released a brief statement condemning all forms of military subordination.

Netanyahu resists pressure to end war

Netanyahu said Israel must take Rafah to eliminate the remaining Hamas battalions and achieve “total victory” over the militants who had recently regrouped in other parts of the Gaza Strip where the military operated.

Netanyahu is under increasing pressure to reach an agreement with Hamas to release the remaining hostages. However, Hamas has refused to do so, citing no guarantees of an end to the war and a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops. However, Netanyahu has ruled this out.

The war is causing Israel to become increasingly isolated on the world stage.

Last week, three European countries announced they would recognize a Palestinian state, and the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu, the Israeli defense minister and three Hamas leaders.

On Friday, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to end its military offensive in Rafah. The UN’s top court also demanded that Israel allow war crimes investigators access to the Gaza Strip. Israel is unlikely to comply with this request.

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Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel and Magdy from Cairo.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.