The IDF is expanding its presence in southern Israel on Friday and getting ready for a new round of fighting with terrorists operating out of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip after Hamas warned Israel it’s ready for an expanded conflict.
Israeli aircraft struck different Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday morning after 7 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli territory on Thursday night.
Furthermore, a lot of fires broke out in Israeli territory close to the border with Gaza on Thursday, after terrorists operating in the Gaza Strip launched a number of incendiary devices attached to balloons.
Following the most recent round of battling, Fawzi Barhoum, a representative for the Hamas terror group said on Friday morning that Hamas ‘would not hesitate to battle the Zionist enemy if the escalation continues’.
Israel, Fawzi Barhoum continued, have to understand that if the attacks continue to destroy our positions, [Israel] is going to bear the cost and pay a heavy price.
Channel 13 cited Palestinian Arab sources which asserted that the rockets fired on Thursday night were launched after Egypt warned Hamas against further escalations, and were intended to signal the willingness of Hamas to expand the conflict.
After the string of rocket attacks on Thursday, the IDF is preparing for additional attacks and advised farmers close to the Gaza frontier not to work their fields on Friday.
According to a report by Israel Hayom on Friday morning, Hamas is requesting Israel to expand the fishing zone allotted to Gaza fishing boats and to allow an expansion of the payments permitted into the Strip from Qatar from $30 million to $40 million per month.
