Gaza: The Israeli regime carried out strikes on Gaza early Thursday, the army and Palestinian officials said.
The attack came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sealed a deal to bring hardline nationalist Avigdor Lieberman into his coalition as defence minister.
Hamas’ military wing confirmed the strikes hit one of its bases near Rafah in southern Gaza and in the Nuseirat refugee camp, causing no casualties.
Lieberman has over the years threatened action on Gaza and its Hamas rulers.
He recently said that if he became defence minister, he would give Hamas’ Gaza leader Esmail Haniya 48 hours to return detained Israelis and soldiers’ bodies “or you’re dead”.
The United Nations envoy for the Middle East warned the Security Council on Wednesday of a “highly volatile” situation in Gaza.
“Palestinians in Gaza are growing ever more desperate, seeing their prospects for living a normal life and recovering their economy blocked by Hamas’ military build-up, by Israel’s security measures and closures, by the lack of Palestinian unity, and the insufficient fulfilment of aid pledges by donors,” Nickolay Mladenov said.
“Recent events clearly demonstrate that the spectre of violence looms ominously over the territory,” Mladenov said.
“Unless radically more is done to address the chronic realities in Gaza, it is not a question of ‘if’, but rather of ‘when’ another escalation will take place.”
