IDF strikes Gaza in response to Hamas rocket fire

IDF strikes Gaza terror targets including mosque after barrage of some 40 mortar shells fall on southern Israel.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
IAF airstrike Gaza_311 reuters (photo credit: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / Reuters)
IAF airstrike Gaza_311 reuters
(photo credit: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / Reuters)
The IDF struck a number of terror targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday in response to continued rocket and mortar fire toward southern Israel by Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Army Radio reported that the IDF struck three sites in the Gaza Strip on Monday.
In a statement released Monday, the IDF spokesperson said that the IDF struck "a number of terror cells and targets if the terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in response to the rockets fired this morning toward territory of the state of Israel."
An army source stated shots were fired at a mosque in Gaza, from which Hamas chose to shoot at Israel, "as part of the use the organization (Hamas) makes of religious sites for terror activities."
On Sunday, the IAF targeted two men it said were involved in previous attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians, including a June 18 attack along the Sinai border that killed one civilian. The two were allegedly planning further attacks in the Sinai, an IDF statement said.
Along with the two terrorists, the IAF strike injured eight civilians, including three children.
The IDF's Spokesperson's Unit identified the terrorists as Talat Khalil Muhammad Jerbi and Abdullah Mohammed Hassan Makawi. One of the terrorists is reported to be critically injured, along with one bystander in the same critical condition.
The armed wing of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist faction that controls the Gaza Strip, said it was involved in the attack on southern Israel together with members of the Islamic Jihad militant group.
"In response to the injury of civilians in the most recent strike on Rafah, the Qassam Brigades and the al-Quds Brigades fired a number of rockets at enemy military positions," Hamas's Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades armed wing said in a statement.