Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel s military correspondent.
View of fishing boats at the port of Gaza City, June 13, 2019. (Hassan Jedi/Flash90)
Israel fully closed the Gaza fishing zone on Monday morning, forbidding Palestinians from sailing off the coast of the beleaguered enclave, after terrorists in the Strip launched five rockets toward southern Israel overnight.
It was the third straight night of rocket attacks from Gaza, raising the specter of wider conflict in the restive region.
The closing of the fishing zone appeared to be Israel’s sole retaliation to the rocket attacks, with the Israel Defense Forces refraining from conducting airstrikes on the Hamas terror group in the Strip its usual response to rocket fire.
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Fighters with the Izz-Al Din Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, in Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, on April 18, 2021. (MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)
The Hamas terror group reacted furiously Monday to Israel’s full closure of the Gaza fishing zone in response to continuing rocket fire from the Strip, saying it would not accept the restrictions and that the policy would have serious repercussions.
Meanwhile, Israel’s security cabinet was set to convene at 3 p.m. to discuss steps in response to the escalation on the Gaza front as well as in East Jerusalem, where daily clashes have been taking place for the past week.
Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel s military correspondent.
Members of the Mujahideen Brigades terror group take part in a military drill on the beach in Gaza City, on April 24, 2021. (Atia Mohammed/Flash90)
Israel’s leadership had wanted to focus on other things: the formation of a government, the ongoing fight against Iranian entrenchment in Syria, the Biden administration’s plans to reenter the 2015 nuclear agreement with Tehran.
Instead, for the past three days, all eyes have been on a Jerusalem racked by internecine violence and the Gaza Strip, from which terror groups have fired dozens of rockets at southern Israel.
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A ball of fire and smoke rises during Israeli airstrikes in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on April 17, 2021. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)
Israel has reportedly sent a message to the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip, warning that if rocket fire from the enclave continues it will draw a major military response.
Over the past three nights, terrorists in the Strip fired some 45 rockets at southern Israel, causing damage in several Israeli communities near the border. In response, the Israel Defense Forces conducted a limited number of airstrikes on sites controlled by Hamas, which rules the enclave, and barred Palestinians from fishing off the Gaza coast.