Israel launched an aerial offensive in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, bombing more than 30 targets including homes and calling it part of a campaign named "Operation Protective Edge" targeting Hamas Islamist militants firing rockets at the Jewish state, according to The Associated Press.
Palestinian officials said Israel bombed more than 30 targets in little more than an hour before dawn, including two homes in southern Gaza, one of which was identified by a neighbour as belonging to a Hamas member, the AP reported.
Nine people suffered shrapnel injuries, but there were no other reported casualties as the buildings were believed to have been evacuated beforehand, according to the AP.
Witnesses said a house bombed in Khan Younis was flattened, wounding nine neighbours with debris from the strike, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, the AP reported.
The Palestinian Interior Ministry said the family in the targeted home had received a telephone call from an Israeli intelligence officer asking them to leave the house because it would be bombed, and the family evacuated in time, according to the AP.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who reached out to the family in person or by telephone, condemned Abu Khdeir's death and tried to calm the public, the AP reported.
Netanyahu expressed his condolences to the family, according to the AP. "I would like to express my outrage and that of the citizens of Israel over the reprehensible murder of your son," Netanyahu said in the statement.
Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said in a tweet that "Operation Protective Edge is under way, targeting Hamas capabilities that are terrorizing Israel," the AP reported.
Hamas denounced Israel's bombing of houses as "exceeding all red lines" and threatened to shoot rockets at longer distances, according to the AP.
"We will respond by broadening the range of our targets," the militants said, the AP reported. Lerner said Gaza militants had fired more than 80 rockets at Israel on Monday, and military officials said more than 200 rockets have been shot at Israel in the past month, an enormous uptick in shootings.
