The Israeli military hit what it described as "key terror infrastructure" in Gaza early Thursday in response to three mortar shells fired from Gaza at Israel the previous day. No casualties were reported in either incident.
Southern Israel has seen stepped up rocket and mortar fire from Gaza in recent weeks, since U.S. President Donald Trump declared on Dec. 6 that the U.S. officially recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's capital, infuriating the Palestinians who envision east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.
Unlike in previous retaliatory strikes, however, the official statement issued by the IDF on Thursday did not detail the specifics of what it described only as significant terror targets. Usually, a statement that follows the strike includes a breakdown of the targets and the organizations that operated them.
But instead, after the latest retaliation, the IDF issued a vague statement saying that "the IDF will continue to use all available means above and below ground to thwart efforts to harm the citizens of Israel."
"We are prepared for a variety of scenarios and we will take action against every attempt to violate Israeli sovereignty," the statement continued.
This anomaly prompted speculation that the infrastructure targeted by Israel was an attack tunnel dug from Gaza into Israeli territory.
In recent months, Israeli forces exposed and neutralized two Hamas attack tunnels. About a month ago, a large tunnel dug from central Gaza and jutting several hundred meters across the border into Israel was discovered in the middle of an agricultural field in southern Israel, less than a mile from the Israeli communities of Nirim and Ein Hashlosha.
Israel holds Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, responsible for all attacks from the territory, regardless of who fires the rockets. Israel typically responds to each attack.
