GAZA STRIP (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime’s aircraft carried out a series of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip early Wednesday, the first such raids since a shaky ceasefire ended the war with Hamas resistance movement last month.
The occupying regime’s warplanes bombed with several missiles a site in Khan Yunis, south of the besieged Gaza Strip, and another site south of Gaza City, the Palestinian Wafa news agency said.
Palestine’s Shehab news agency said the site in Khan Yunis was a military compound in Ma’an area that belonged to the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said the Zionist regime’s bombing of the Gaza Strip was a “failed attempt” to stop Palestinian people’s solidarity with the occupied al-Quds, and to cover up the unprecedented state of confusion for the Zionist regime in organizing the so-called “march of the flags.”
The Wednesday’s airstrikes were the first major flare-up between the regime and Palestinian resistance groups since an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire on May 21 ended 11 days of heavy fighting that claimed the lives of hundreds of Palestinians.
Meanwhile, Zionist military vehicles reportedly breached Gaza territory and went into the eastern part of Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, where they razed Palestinian-owned farmland, according to sources.
Sources said seven military tanks violated Gaza fence, went nearly 150 meters into the eastern part of Rafah city, and proceeded to raze agricultural land.
In a separate incident, Zionist troops shot dead a Palestinian woman in the central part of the occupied West Bank over an alleged car-ramming and stabbing attack against the regime’s troops.
The occupying regime’s military claimed in a statement that the incident occurred near the Palestinian town of Hizme, located seven kilometers from the Old City of al-Quds, on Wednesday morning.
It further alleged that the Palestinian woman tried to run down a group of troops who were conducting work along the separation barrier, and then tried to stab them.
Palestine TV later identified the victim as 29-year-old Palestinian doctor Mai Yousef Afaneh, a resident of Abu Dis village outside al-Quds.
A day earlier, Zionist troops attacked Palestinians protesting against the march by far-right Zionist settlers commemorating the regime’s seizure and subsequent occupation of East al-Quds in 1967.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said 33 people were injured during the clashes.
Meanwhile, at least six Palestinians were arrested by Zionist troops, while scores more were attacked and evicted from the Damascus Gate, the main entry to the Muslim Quarter of the Old City.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad resistance Movements in the Gaza Strip had warned they would respond firmly to any provocative acts and the Israeli so-called “march of the flags.”
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh had sounded alarm over dangerous repercussions of the Zionist regime’s stepped-up attacks.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry also on Wednesday called on the newly elected Zionist cabinet to stop the regime’s aggression in the region.