Israel retaliates with airstrikes after Hamas attack... "16 dead"

Rafah, the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip, hit by Israeli airstrikes. Archive photo [Image source=Yonhap News]

As ceasefire negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian armed faction Hamas face difficulties, Israel carried out retaliatory airstrikes in response to Hamas's rocket attacks.

On the 6th (local time), major foreign media outlets reported, citing Palestinian health authorities, that Israel attacked homes in Rafah, the southernmost part of the Gaza Strip. According to reports, Israel conducted two airstrikes, resulting in the deaths of 16 people from two families, including an infant. Some estimates put the death toll at a minimum of 19.

The airstrikes are seen as retaliation for Hamas's attack on the Kerem Shalom checkpoint on the Israeli side near the northern Gaza Strip separation barrier on the 5th, which killed three Israeli soldiers. The Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing, claimed responsibility for firing rockets targeting the Israeli military base near the checkpoint.

Following Hamas's attack, the Israeli military immediately closed the border checkpoint through which aid supplies enter Gaza and carried out retaliatory airstrikes on the Salam area near Rafah, the origin of the rocket launches. The Israeli military confirmed the retaliatory strikes and condemned Hamas's attack on the border checkpoint, stating that "there is evidence that Hamas systematically uses humanitarian facilities and employs Gaza's civilians as 'human shields.'"

Hamas dismissed Israel's 'human shield' allegations as untrue. Israel and Hamas have been conducting ceasefire negotiations under international mediation but have yet to narrow their differences regarding the end of hostilities.