At the stroke of midnight, the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas, bombed the greater Tel Aviv area with a barrage of missiles.
The Brigades said in a statement that it bombed Tel Aviv and its suburbs with M-90 rockets in response to “Zionist massacres against Palestinian civilians”. Footage of the rocket launch was also shared.
Israeli media reported that about 20 rockets were also fired from the Gaza Strip towards central Israel.
According to Israeli Army Radio, sirens sounded in the cities of Tel Aviv, Rishon Lezion, Lod, Ramla, Bnei Brak, and the Modiin settlement in the central occupied West Bank.
Warning sirens also reportedly sounded in Sderot and other areas around the Gaza Strip.
Commenting on the rocket attack, military analyst Maj. Gen. Wassef Erekat told Al-Jazeera that the bombing of Tel Aviv, at that precise time, was meant to convey a message to Israel.
According to Erekat, the Palestinian Resistance renewed its message to the Israeli leadership: “Just as we defeated you in 2023 (with the Al-Aqsa Flood operation – PC), here we are, opening the year with another defeat.”
AL-QASSAM BRIGADES: We bombed the larger Tel Aviv area with a large number of M90 rockets in response to Zionist massacres of Palestinian civilians. pic.twitter.com/KsDUp3rgCk
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) December 31, 2023
Fortification Plan
Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that, according to Israeli army estimates, the midnight rocket barrage was launched from sites in Khan Yunis and Jabaliya, in the southern and northern Gaza Strip respectively.
According to the newspaper, the Israeli government is mulling the possibility of “erecting new engineering obstacles between the settlements in the Arab Negev and the Upper and Western Galilee” to protect Israeli settlers from missiles.
Moreover, according to Ynet, the Israeli army and the government “are conducting continuous talks” to erect “obstacles and high walls between the settlements and roads in the Western Negev adjacent to the Gaza Strip to prevent anti-tank missiles (…) from hitting Israeli vehicles”.
The move comes despite attempts at persuading Israeli residents of the Gaza envelope “that Hamas’ ability to raid Israeli territory has greatly decreased, as has its rocket capability”, Ynet added.
The plan, according to the Israeli newspaper, will require “enormous economic resources of billions of shekels”.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
