ISRAELI WARPLANES STRIKE PARTS OF GAZA STRIP

Wed 24 March 2021:

Israeli warplanes have carried out attacks on points in the Gaza Strip, no information has been released so far on casualties or injuries.

Late on Tuesday, the IDF reported that a rocket was fired from the enclave toward Israel. The rocket landed in the area of the city of Beer Sheva, where Prime Minister and Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu arrived earlier in the day as the country held the parliamentary elections.

“In response to the rocket fired from Gaza into Israel tonight, IDF fighter jets and attack helicopters struck a Hamas rocket manufacturing site and military post.

Hamas will bear the consequences for terror activity against Israeli civilians,” the IDF wrote on Twitter.

No party in Gaza has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Israelis on Tuesday headed out to cast votes in Knesset elections.

The announcement of the attack on Hamas facilities came as Netanyahu addressed his supporters in the headquarters of the Lukid Party, which won the elections by a wide margin, according to the findings of an exit poll by the KAN public broadcaster.

The ICC’s new probe into Israeli war crimes

After six years of painstaking investigation, the ICC is finally moving to probe Israeli violations of human rights and international law, which could lead to the prosecution of both Israelis and Palestinians.

For years, Israel’s government carried out extensive media campaigns and lobbying to prevent an investigation from taking place. With the launch of the probe, warrants for the arrest of suspected Israeli war criminals can now be ordered, something Netanyahu’s government sought to avoid at all costs.

To increase the odds of success, the ICC Chief Prosecutor will only be looking at alleged crimes that took place since Israel’s relentless 50-day aerial bombardment and attack on Gaza in 2014.

The attack killed nearly 2,310 civilians, and injured up to 10,895; 3,374 of whom were children. Nearly 1000 children were left permanently disabled.

A UN OHCHR investigative commission reports that the Israeli air force carried out more than 6,000 airstrikes on Gaza during the 50-day offensive, displacing 273,000 Palestinians. OCHA estimates that nearly 373,000 children were in need of psychosocial support after the bombings.

Ceaseless air raids damaged nearly 20 to 25 percent of Gazan homes, and destroyed a considerable sewage and electricity infrastructure, as well as 220 industrial factories, Gaza’s largest mosque, 10 out of 26 hospitals, and a number of TV stations. Nearly 203 mosques were also damaged by airstrikes.