CAIRO, May 14. /TASS/. The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas organization, announced the launch of 50 missiles in the direction of the Israeli cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod, Palestine’s radio station Dunya Al Watan informed on Friday.
According to the radio station, the coastal enclave launched missiles in the direction of Israel at 01:00 local time (same as Moscow time) in response to the recent attacks of Israel on northern areas of the Gaza Strip.
The Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad, informed of new strikes in the direction of Be'er Sheva, Ashkelon and Sderot.
For their part, the al-Nasser Salah al-Deen Brigades (the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees) informed that two rockets had been launched in the direction of Netivot, a city in southern Israel.
The exchange of missile attacks between Israel and the Gaza Strip, which has been going on since May 10, was triggered by riots in East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque. Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police officers erupted after an Israeli court had ruled to evict several Palestinian families from the city’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and hand the property over to Jewish settlers, saying that had owned it before 1948. The Gaza Health Ministry said earlier that 109 Palestinians had been killed in the attacks, including 28 children and 15 women, and over 620 people were injured. Media reports say that Palestinian radicals’ attacks on Israeli cities have killed at least six Israelis.