The armed wing of Palestinian Hamas said on Sunday May 26 that it had targeted Tel Aviv with a “major barrage of rockets”. At the same time, Israel continues to bomb the southern Gaza Strip, despite a ruling by the International Court of Justice which ordered the country to suspend its operation. A meeting of the Israeli war cabinet is scheduled for Sunday evening to discuss efforts to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Information to remember
⇒ Hamas says it fired rockets towards Tel Aviv.
⇒ The human toll on the Palestinian side is around 36,000 dead, according to Hamas.
⇒ The Israeli war cabinet is due to meet this evening.
Hamas fires rockets towards Tel Aviv
The armed wing of Palestinian Hamas said on Sunday that it had targeted Tel Aviv with a “major barrage of rockets” in a message published on the social network Telegram.
“We bombarded Tel Aviv with a heavy barrage of rockets in response to the Zionist massacres against civilians,” the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades wrote in their message posted online a few minutes after warning sirens sounded in the central Israel.
Earlier, the Israeli army said that at least eight rockets had been fired towards the center of the country from Rafah, in the far south of the Gaza Strip, where its troops are engaged in fierce fighting with the Palestinian armed groups.
The army claimed that “some of the rockets” had been “intercepted” and an AFP correspondent in the Gaza Strip reported seeing rockets fired from Rafah.
Nearly 36,000 dead on the Palestinian side, according to Hamas
The Hamas Ministry of Health announced on Sunday a new death toll of 35,984 in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war.
In 24 hours, at least 81 additional deaths were recorded, according to a press release from the Islamist movement, which also reports 80,643 injured in more than seven months of war.
Airstrikes and artillery fire again targeted the north and center of the Gaza Strip on Sunday, as well as Rafah in the southern tip of the territory, from where hundreds of thousands of people have fled.
Israeli war cabinet meeting planned
A senior Israeli official told AFP that a war cabinet meeting was planned for Sunday evening to discuss efforts to secure the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip.
“The war cabinet is expected to meet in Jerusalem this evening at 9:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. GMT) to discuss a hostage release deal,” the Israeli official said, without giving further details, as efforts to secure a deal ceasefire in the Palestinian territory resumes after more than seven months of a devastating war between Israel and Hamas.