Israel Air Force airstrikes on Hamas targets in Gaza Strip

Airstrikes in response to sniper fire on IDF soldiers Tuesday; Lebanon claims it arrested Mossad agent from assassination attempt on Hamas official in January 2018.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out airstrikes on Hamas positions in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday night.

The strikes were in retaliation to shots fired at IDF soldiers patrolling the Gaza Strip border on Tuesday morning. Palestinian snipers, under the guise of protesters, shot at Israeli soldiers patrolling, hitting and lightly wounding one soldier. The IDF retaliated at first with tank fire and later carried out airstrikes on Hamas targets in north Gaza.

The IDF Spokespersons Unit confirmed Tuesday, “Terrorists shot at our troops stationed along Israel’s border fence with Gaza several times throughout the day. In response, IDF fighter jets struck several terror sites in a Hamas military camp in the northern Gaza Strip.”

Meanwhile, Lebanon claimed it arrested a suspected Mossad agent who was involved in the attempted assassination of a Hamas official, Mohammed Hamdan, in Sidon in January of last year. Hamdan, a security official for Hamas’s branch in Lebanon, survived a car bomb attack, both Hamas and Hezbollah blaming Israel for the attack. An arrest was made following the attack, Lebanese authorities claiming the suspect confessed to being a Mossad agent.