Islamic Jihad launches rockets at Israel in response to Gaza hospital strikes

Gaza, May 14 (IANS) Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, announced on that it had launched rocket attacks on Israeli cities in response to Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip.

"We attacked Ashdod, Ashkelon, Sderot and Israeli settlements adjacent to Gaza with rocket barrages in response to the Israeli massacres against our Palestinian people," al-Quds Brigades said in a press statement.

A source in the movement said the attack aimed to demonstrate "the resistance's ability to respond decisively to Israeli attacks."

Israeli media outlets, reported that sirens sounded in several cities and towns in southern Israel, including Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Sderot.

Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military spokesperson, said in a statement that two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip were intercepted, while a third landed in an open area, without causing casualties or significant material damage.

Following the rocket attack, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Tuesday night ordered residents of the Jabalia city and refugee camp, and other surrounding neighbourhoods in the central Gaza Strip, to immediately evacuate ahead of an Israeli strike, Xinhua news agency reported.

The residents were instructed to relocate immediately to the shelter centers in Gaza City.

The rocket attack came hours after intensive Israeli airstrikes targeted the vicinity of the Gaza European Hospital, which Palestinian sources said resulted in widespread destruction and heavy human losses.

At least six Palestinians were killed and 40 others injured in the Israeli airstrikes, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Tuesday.

According to the IDF, the strike was aimed at an underground Hamas command and control center. The military accused Hamas of continuing to use hospitals in Gaza to conceal militant infrastructure.

Israeli state broadcaster Kan and other media outlets reported that the strike targeted Hamas figure Mohammed Sinwar, the younger brother of former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by Israeli forces in southern Gaza in October last year. It remained unclear whether Mohammed Sinwar was among the casualties.

--IANS

int/rs