Israel launched an airstrike against Gaza on Monday in retaliation for a missile fired from the Palestinian territory over the weekend, according to the army, while unrest in the occupied West Bank remained.
In a pre-dawn Israeli army operation in Nablus, in the northern West Bank, the location of nearly constant conflict over the past year, the Palestinian Red Crescent reported one death.
The army held off on making a statement after the raid on Nablus.
However, it claimed to have hit “an underground complex containing raw materials used to manufacture rockets” in Gaza.
The army stated in a statement that the attacks were “in retaliation to the rocket launch from Gaza into Israel on Saturday.”
The military reported that following the Israeli airstrikes, air raid sirens were heard in several villages along the Gaza border.
Following the latest round of missile fire, reports indicate that no deaths occurred in either Israel or Gaza.
However, the bloodshed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has dramatically increased.
Following the most recent killing in Nablus, the violence has claimed the lives of 47 Palestinian adults and children since the beginning of the year, including terrorists and civilians.
“Israeli Security Cabinet Legalizes Nine Jewish Settlements in West Bank Amid Tragic Attacks”
During the same time frame, official sources from both sides reported the killing of nine Israeli civilians, including three children, and one Ukrainian civilian.
In reaction to tragic Palestinian attacks in annexation-affected east Jerusalem, Israel’s security cabinet late Saturday declared that it will legalise nine Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Many of the newly authorised communities, some of which had been around for decades, according to a security cabinet statement, had previously gone unrecognised by the Israeli government despite their existence.
Since the 1967 Six Day War, Israel has held the West Bank under occupation.
Approximately 475,000 Jewish settlers now reside in the settlements of Palestinian territory, which international law prohibits.
Most of that population lives in settlements that Israel has unilaterally approved, although some also reside in places where the government has not given its approval.
The security cabinet plans to announce a fresh round of settler housing construction in the West Bank, a move expected to elicit strong international criticism.
During a visit to the area last month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a warning against settlement growth.
The conservative administration of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also declared an increased security presence in east Jerusalem, which Israel annexed and where two recent deadly attacks against civilians took place.