An Israeli Apache helicopter releases flares as it flies over the Gaza Strip March 25, 2019. Reuters/Mohammed Salem
Israel began an offensive against the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on Monday in retaliation for a second rocket attack on the country’s heartland in less than two weeks.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is making a bid for a fifth term in April 9 elections, cut short a trip to the U.S. where he’d hoped to celebrate a pre-vote diplomatic coup and vowed a tough response.
"This was a criminal attack on the State of Israel, and we will respond forcefully,” the prime minister said in a video provided by his office. He planned to leave Washington after meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday morning.
Troops were moved closer to Israel’s southern border with Gaza and the army declared closed military zones near the frontier. Reserves were called up and bomb shelters opened.
Channel 12 TV reported that the Palestinian territory was under aerial attack. Hamas security officials said Israeli airstrikes targeted two Hamas military facilities and training compounds in northern Gaza. No injuries were reported from those strikes because militants had evacuated their posts and compounds in anticipation of an Israeli reprisal, but hospitals across the territory were put on an emergency footing.
The rocket fired on Monday morning destroyed a house in the village of Mishmeret, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Gaza, but its residents escaped serious injury after an air-raid siren gave them enough time to take shelter.
The attack further hurt Netanyahu’s reputation as the guardian of Israel’s security on the eve of the tough election. Critics have accused the prime minister of squandering Israel’s deterrence by not launching a full-scale war on Gaza over the past year despite repeated rocket salvos.
