Israel launches its first airstrikes in the Gaza Strip since cease-fire

(Image credit: SAID KHATIB/AFP/Getty Images)

published 27 May 2015

Israeli fighter jets launched four airstrikes in the Gaza Strip early Wednesday, the first since a cease-fire between Gaza militants and Israel went into effect last summer following a 50-day war.

Israeli Defense Minster Moshe Yaalon told The Associated Press that the Israeli airstrikes were aimed at the Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip, as well as at Hamas sites, in retaliation for a rocket fired at southern Israel Tuesday night. No Palestinian group, however, claimed responsibility for the rocket attack.

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Israeli Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told AP the airstrikes targeted "four terror infrastructures" in the Gaza Strip. "The reality that Hamas' territory is used as a staging ground to attack Israel is unacceptable and intolerable and will bear consequences," Lerner told AP. "Israelis cannot be expected to live in the perpetual fear of rocket attacks. The IDF will continue to operate in order to seek out those that wish to undermine Israeli sovereignty with acts of terrorism."