Rocket Launched From Gaza Strip Toward Southern Israel - IDF

Already existing tensions between the Gaza Strip and Israel have been exacerbated by the US release of the long-awaited peace plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A rocket has been launched from Gaza towards Israel's Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council, according to the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).

The IDF has confirmed that an air raid siren was activated.

"In response to the rocket launched from Gaza into Israel earlier this evening, IDF tanks just targeted 2 Hamas military posts in Gaza", the IDF said in a statement.

The IDF says that it was holding Hamas responsible for any attack coming from the Gaza Strip.

A rocket was just fired from #Gaza into #Israel.

This marks the 7th launch from Gaza at Israel in the last week.

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) February 8, 2020

The air raid comes after the Israeli air force hit facilities of the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip after rocket fire and the launch of several explosive balloons from the Palestinian enclave on 6 February. 

The violence comes as part of an increasingly volatile situation in the West Bank and Gaza following the publication of the White House’s widely panned Israeli-Palestinian peace plan in late January.

Earlier in February, the Palestinian Authority announced that it was cutting ties with both the US and Israel over the proposed plan. The Arab League foreign ministers' extraordinary meeting similarly rejected the deal and urged the international community to counter any Israeli attempt to implement it.

The US "deal of the century" envisions Israel's annexation of settlements in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley, with the Jewish state having Jerusalem as its "undivided capital". A demilitarised Palestinian state, in turn, is invited to use the adjacent village of Abu Dis as its capital.