Israeli air strikes kill 7 members of Hamas armed branch

The Israeli air force struck Hamas targets Sunday night at the end of day that saw 23 rockets fired from Gaza into Israel. Seven members of Hamas’s armed branch and two others were killed at three locales: Beit Lahiya, Al Bureij and Rafah, This was the first time in three weeks of steady Palestinian rocket fire that Israel has struck real targets in the Gaza Strip. The Hamas spokesman said that this was the biggest single Israel hit against the Islamist group since 2012 and “The enemy would pay dearly.”

On Israel’s northern border, several mortar rounds landed on the Golan. The IDF returned the fire across the border into Syria.