#Israeli army strikes Gaza in response to rocket attacks after peace deal

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Smoke and flames rise after war planes belonging to the Israeli army carried out airstrikes over in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip
ZUMAPRESS.com

The Israeli army struck back Wednesday at Hamas military targets in the Gaza Strip after militants fired 15 rockets amid the backdrop of the Jewish state’s signing of normalization accords with two Gulf Arab countries.

“Approximately 10 terror targets were struck, among the sites struck were a weapons and explosives manufacturing factory and a military compound used for training and rocket launching experiments by the Hamas terror organization,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the militants who fired the missiles “want to prevent peace — they won’t.”

“We will hit everyone who tries to harm us, and we will extend a hand of peace to all who reach out to us to make peace,” he said in a statement Wednesday, according to Agence France-Presse.

The targets in Gaza included a weapons and explosives manufacturing factory and a compound used by Hamas for training and rocket experiments, according to the IDF.

Without naming specific factions, the Islamic Jihad in Gaza said that in response to air strikes, the “resistance” fired rocket volleys into Israel, Reuters reported.

The rockets were fired into southern Israel around the time a ceremony was underway at the White House for the signing of normalization agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

The Israeli Magen David Adom emergency service said two people who were injured by shrapnel near the city of Ashdod were taken to a hospital, one in moderate and another in a mild condition.

Eight of the missiles fired from Gaza were intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system, the Times of Israel reported, citing the IDF.

Hundreds of Palestinians protested in the West Bank and in Gaza against the “Abraham Accords” during what was dubbed the “Day of Popular Rejection.”

Demonstrators raised Palestinian flags and signs reading: “No to normalization with the occupation.”

Ismail Radwan, the leader of the radical Islamic Hamas movement that rules Gaza, said that Sept. 15 is a “black day in the history of the rulers of the Emirates and Bahrain because of the signing of the disgraceful agreement with the occupation state under US auspices.”

With Post wires