Rocket attack triggers Israeli retaliation on Gaza

The Israeli military has launched dozens of strikes on Gaza in an unusually strong response to a rocket fired from Gaza that landed between two houses in the Israeli community of Sderot.

Responsibility for the rocket attack on Sunday was initially claimed by both Ahfad a-Sahaba, one of the small Salafist groups that have recently become more active in Gaza, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. It prompted a wave of up to 50 retaliatory attacks, according to Israeli military sources, hitting several of Gaza’s armed Palestinian factions.

A security source said raids targeted Hamas’s Izzedin Qassam Brigades, the Islamic Jihad’s Quds Brigades and the PFLP. Artillery shells also hit the area of Al Burej in central Gaza and Beit Hanoun in the north. Several Palestinians, including a 17-year-old boy, were reportedly wounded.

The raids broke the pattern of limited Israeli retaliation during periods of relative quiet, leading the Islamist group Hamas to accuse Israel of escalating tensions.

According to reports, the Israeli response came in two waves, the first immediately after the rocket attack, and then again during the night, involving three Israeli jets and tank fire.

A Hamas spokesman said in a statement: “We hold [Israel] responsible for the escalation in the Gaza Strip and we stress that its aggression will not succeed in breaking the will of our people and dictate terms to the resistance.”

An Israel military spokesman said that the military “remains committed to the stability of the region and operated in order to bring quiet to the people of southern Israel. When terrorists in Hamas’ Gaza Strip, driven by a radical agenda based on hatred, attack people in the middle of the summer vacation, their intentions are clear – to inflict pain, cause fear and to terrorise.”

The accepted wisdom in both Israeli and Palestinian circles is that Hamas, which remains politically and militarily weak since the last round of conflict with Israel in 2014, is not seeking increased confrontation at the moment.

The rocket strike on Sderot is the first significant incident since the far-right Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman became defence minister. It comes after Lieberman set out his guiding principles for dealing with Palestinian affairs, in which he invoked the “carrot and stick approach” and a desire to sideline the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank.

In recent years Lieberman has advocated a much more hardline policy on Gaza than the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, including the reconquest of Gaza by Israel.

A poll of Israelis and Palestinians show that a slim majority on both sides still favour a peace settlement establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel, despite years of conflict and deadlock in negotiations. The results may provide a small sign of encouragement at a time when peace prospects appear bleak. The last round of negotiations broke down two years ago, and the resumption of talks, let alone progress, seems unlikely.

The poll found that 51% of Palestinians and 59% of Israelis support a two-state solution to the conflict.