Israel launches heavy air attacks on Gaza

Israel retaliated with a massive air strike on the Hamas-led Gaza Strip, hours after finding the bodies of three kidnapped Israeli teenage boys, all of whom had been shot dead.

The Israeli police had been concentrating all its efforts on finding three teenagers who had been kidnapped just over two weeks ago. The search and rescue operation began immediately after one of the boys managed to call an emergency hotline, after they had been kidnapped.

After finding their bodies in a field, nearby the place of their disappearance, police concluded that all three of them had been shot dead, minutes after being kidnapped.

Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, pledged that ‘Hamas will pay’ for the killings and, within hours, Israel launched a heavy air strike upon the Gaza Strip. Jets and helicopters launched at least 34 strikes during the night that passed.

Over in the Gaza Strip, a Hamas spokesperson said that, in spite of the fact that ‘no Palestinian group, Hamas or any other group’ had taken responsibility for the killings, Israel still responded with a military offensive. He claimed that Israel used the kidnap as an excuse to attack Palestinians.

He also warned that, if Israel chooses to ‘carry out an escalation or a war, they will open the gates of hell on themselves.’

These attacks have been the first Israeli retaliation since the country renounced such practices in 2005.