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TEL AVIV, Israel, July 16 (UPI) -- The Israeli Air Force Thursday (IAF) launched an airstrike against a terrorist location in Gaza. The airstrike was organized in retaliation for a rocket attack on the Hof Ashkelon region Wednesday night. One passerby was lightly injured.
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The IAF believes that Hamas bears responsibility for all rocket attacks on Israel, and decided to launch their offensive for the sake of the safety of Israeli citizens. No militant organization in the Gaza Strip has stepped forward to take the blame.
The Wednesday attack on Israel did not cause physical injuries nor damages because it landed in an open area of the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. Israeli security forces are now looking for remnants of the rocket.
The retaliation mirrors that which took place on June 24, when Israel launched an airstrike on the Gaza Strip in responses to a rocket that landed in southern Israel's Yad Mordechai community on the evening of June 23.
This, in turn, followed a similar scenario in May when the IAF hit four targets on the Strip in response to a Tuesday evening rocket firing that injured a 15-year-old. The May fiasco led Hamas to evacuate all of its security headquarters in anticipation of Israeli retaliation.
The Israeli Defense Force released statements in May saying that Hamas is a nation-like terrorist organization that cannot be defeated through month-long offensives such as 2014's Operation Protective Edge. They added that Hamas' priority is staying in power and that rising death tolls are therefore not a measure of success.
