Israeli warplanes have attacked sites in the Gaza Strip after a rocket landed in southern Israel and as tensions reach a boiling point in the occupied West Bank, where 10 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since last week.
The Israeli military said the air raids in the early hours of Sunday targeted a weapons manufacturing facility and an underground tunnel belonging to Hamas, according to the Associated Press news agency.
“The strike overnight continues the progress to impede the force build-up”, the Israeli army said in reference to Hamas, the AP reported.
No group has claimed responsibility for the rocket, reported to be the first fired in a month, which the Israeli military said landed in an open area near the Gaza-Israel fence on Saturday evening without causing casualties or damage to property.
The air attack on Gaza follows outrage over the killing of a young Palestinian man, Ammar Mufleh, 23, by an Israeli soldier in broad daylight on Friday and which was captured on video. The harrowing footage has sparked widespread anger among Palestinians and calls on social media to escalate resistance against the Israeli occupation.
The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned the shooting of Mufleh as tantamount to an execution, and Palestinian activists and social media users have adopted the hashtag “Huwara Execution” in Arabic, calling for a response to crimes by Israeli forces.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, released a statement saying he was “greatly concerned about the increasing level of violence in the occupied West Bank”.
“During the last days alone, 10 Palestinians have been killed by ISF (Israeli Security Forces). Yesterday’s tragic killing of a Palestinian man, Ammar Mifleh, by a member of the ISF (Israeli Security Forces) was the latest example,” Borrell said.
“Such unacceptable facts must be investigated and there must be full accountability. Under international law, lethal force is only justified in situations in which there exists a serious and imminent threat to life,” he said.
The rising violence has made 2022 the deadliest year since the end of the second Intifada in 2005, with at least 207 Palestinians killed in the occupied territories of the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and East Jerusalem so far this year.
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