Israel hits 160 targets in Gaza overnight: army

The Israeli air force bombed 160 targets in the Gaza Strip overnight as it pressed a widescale campaign to stop volleys of Palestinian rocket fire, an army official said Wednesday.
      
"Overnight, the IDF (army) hit about 160 targets in the Gaza Strip. Over the past two days we attacked a total of about 430 targets," General Moti Almoz told military radio as Operation Protective Edge entered its second day.        

The targets included about 120 concealed rocket launchers, 10 Hamas command and control centres, among them two homes, and many tunnels, he said.        

"Hamas's weapons stockpile has suffered significant damage over the past two days," Almoz told the radio.        

He said the Islamist movement has been "forced into a corner" and was trying to launch attacks on multiple fronts.        

"Last night, Hamas started to unveil its surprises," he said referring to an attempted attack by sea and the barrage of long-range rockets fired at cities as far away as Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the northern coastal city of Hadera, which is more than 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Gaza.        

"Hamas was trying to surprise and find the weak points and penetrate Israel by sea or through tunnels; these incidents were thwarted very successfully by the IDF," he said.
      
The rocket fire continued early Wednesday, with army radio reporting that at least five projectiles from Gaza were shot down over Tel Aviv and its surrounds by Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system.
      
Hamas's armed wing the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades claimed the rocket fire, saying it had launched four M75 rockets at Israel's commercial capital.        

Almoz said...