“Israeli” Warplanes Strike Blockaded Gaza Strip

Local Editor

The Zionist occupation warplanes carried out new airstrikes against the besieged Gaza Strip, shortly after “Israeli” occupation soldiers martyred several protesters from the impoverished enclave.

The Zionist military aircraft targeted several locations in the Gaza Strip late on Friday, including one in the east of Rafah town and the other in the central parts of the sliver. No reports have yet been released about possible casualties due to the airstrikes.

The “Israeli” military claimed in a statement that the aerial aggression was in retaliation for 16 rockets fired against the southern parts of the occupied territories earlier in the day.

On Thursday, “Israeli” warplanes also hit eight targets belonging to the Hamas resistance movement near the towns of Khan Younis and Rafah, besides other targets.

The airstrikes on Friday followed the martyrdom of five Palestinian protesters at the hands of “Israeli” military forces in the weekly anti-occupation rallies along the border that separates the Gaza Strip from the occupied territories.

Tensions have been running high near the border fence since March 30, which marked the start of a series of protests dubbed “The Great March of Return.” Palestinian protesters demand the right to return for those driven out of their homeland.

The clashes in Gaza reached their peak on May 14, the eve of the 70th anniversary of Nakba Day, or the Day of Catastrophe, which coincided this year with Washington's relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied al-Quds.

More than 200 Palestinians have so far been martyred and over 20,000 others wounded in the renewed Gaza clashes, according to the latest figures released by the Gaza Health Ministry.

The territory has been under an “Israeli” siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in living standards as well as unprecedented unemployment and poverty.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team