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In the early hours of December 19th, a rocket was fired from Gaza aimed at Israeli territory. The projectile was intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome Aerial Defense System and there were no damages nor casualties.
2:30am:
A rocket was fired from #Gaza at Israeli civilians.
The rocket was intercepted mid-air by the Iron Dome Aerial Defense System.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 19, 2019
In response, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) fighter jets carried out a strike on a Hamas weapons manufacturing site in Gaza.
Since the IDF said it held Hamas responsible for the rocket launch.
In response to the rocket fired from #Gaza at Israel overnight, IDF fighter jets struck a Hamas weapons manufacturing site in Gaza.
We hold Hamas responsible for the events transpiring in the Gaza Strip and emanating from it.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 19, 2019
Israel later announced it had restricted the permitted fishing zone off the coast of the Gaza Strip to 10 nautical miles in response to the rocket fire.
There is a video of the Israeli strikes.
WARNING: Loud noise.
The incident comes a day after an Israeli aircraft fired at and hit an armed Palestinian who approached the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel, the IDF said.
This is the armed terrorist who attempted to infiltrate into #Israel from #Gaza earlier tonight.
His (unfulfilled) objective: to murder Israeli families living less than a mile away.
We stopped him before he could. pic.twitter.com/gQvXqVgfwm
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 17, 2019
On December 13th, several thousand Palestinians protested on the Gaza border, with Israel forces clashing with some of them, as Hamas marked 32 years of its founding.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said five Palestinians were hurt in the clashes. The border demonstrations were part of the weekly March of Return protests that began last March and resumed earlier this month after a three-week hiatus following a large-scale battle in November between the IDF and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
On December 18th, Likud (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party) member of Israeli parliament and former Jerusalem mayor, Nir Barkat asked US Ambassador David Friedman for Washington to apply sanctions on Turkey.
The reason was that a newspaper report claimed Turkish authorities were allowing Hamas members to “plan attacks on Israel from their territory, including a past plot to assassinate him.”
Barkat said in a statement that he had spoken with Friedman and requested that the US lead international action against Turkey as it has done against Iran.
“Once again, we have confirmation for the fact that Turkey supports terror and provides a warm home for Hamas and anyone who wants to harm Israel,” Barkat said “It is not the first time that I have heard about a [terror] cell like this, but this time we understand that the Turks were actually helping them.”
Barkat said he intends to act so that “the US will lead a process of severe international sanctions on Turkey which is a terror-supporting regime just like Iran.”
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