In southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military has conducted airstrikes against Hamas targets. Hamas was blamed for a barrage of 34 missiles fired from Lebanon into northern Israel on Thursday, according to the Israeli military.
After the beginning of the attacks, militants in Gaza launched dozens more missiles. Following two nights of Israeli police assaults on the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem earlier this week, tensions are high.
The incursions provoked violent confrontations with Palestinians inside the mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, and sparked outrage throughout the region. Hamas did not claim responsibility for the largest barrage of missiles launched from Lebanon in 17 years.
However, its commander Ismail Haniyeh, who was in Beirut at the time, stated that the Palestinians would not "cross their arms" in the face of Israeli aggression. Two or three explosions occurred overnight near the Rashidieh Palestinian refugee camp, five kilometers (three miles) south of the Lebanese coastal city of Tyre.
4 kilometers further south, the Lebanese media also reported attacks on the outskirts of the village of al-Qulaila. It appeared from photographs that a small bridge had been obliterated.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tweeted that its warplanes attacked "Hamas-affiliated terrorist infrastructures" in Lebanon. The IDF has warned that it will not permit the Hamas terrorist organization to operate from within Lebanon and that it will hold Lebanon accountable for any aimed fire emanating from its territory.
Hamas issued a forceful condemnation of today's [Friday] dawn Zionist aggression against Lebanon in the vicinity of Tyre.
The IDF stated that more than ten Hamas targets were struck in Gaza, including a shaft for a subterranean weapons manufacturing facility, three other weapons workshops, and an underground terrorist passageway. During the attacks, at least 44 missiles were launched from Gaza towards southern Israel, according to Israeli media.
The majority of the rockets were either intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome defense system or fell in open areas, but at least one residence in Sderot was hit. During the attacks, at least 44 missiles were launched from Gaza towards southern Israel, according to Israeli media.
The preponderance of the projectiles were either intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome defense system or fell in open areas, but at least one home in Sderot was hit. In the northwestern border community of Shlomi, the rockets damaged vehicles and a bank, and left craters in the road. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, vowed that Israel's response would "exact a significant price from our enemies."
A spokesman for the Israeli military stated that the military believed Hamas was behind the attack and that Islamic Jihad may also have been involved.
Within hours of a statement from the group Hezbollah, which dominates much of southern Lebanon, saying it would support "any actions" done by Palestinians "to preserve worshippers and the al-Aqsa mosque and dissuade the enemy from continuing its attacks," the mosque was attacked. Najib Mikati, the prime minister of Lebanon, condemned any military operations on his country's soil that "destabilize the situation."
The Lebanese Army claims the missiles came from al-Qulaila and the border villages of Maaliya and Zibqine, all of which are located close to the city of Tyre. In al-Qulayaa, Zibqine, and further east, in the vicinity of Marjayoun, the group claimed to have discovered launchpads and a number of unfired rockets.
