The Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, has fired scores of rockets toward Israel, hitting Tel Aviv and the surrounding areas in retaliation for the regime’s aggression against the besieged Gaza Strip.
"We are carrying out now our promise by launching a massive rocket strike against Tel Aviv and its suburbs, with 130 rockets, in response to the enemy's targeting of residential towers," in Gaza, Hamas's armed wing said in a statement late on Tuesday.
Air raid sirens and explosions were heard in Tel Aviv as well as in the towns of Holon and Givatayim, and the sky was lit up by the streaks of multiple interceptor missiles launched towards the incoming rockets fired by Hamas.
Israeli media said five people were killed and more than 80 others injured in the occupied territories and all flights at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport have been canceled.
The massive rocket barrages by Hamas also targeted oil and electricity installations in the southern city of Ashkelon.
The retaliatory strikes came shortly after a 13-storey residential block in the Gaza Strip was hit by an Israeli air raid, with Hamas and the Islamic Jihad resistance group saying they would respond by firing rockets at Tel Aviv.
Palestine's official Wafa news agency said Israeli airstrikes on various locations in the Gaza Strip had claimed the lives of 35 people, including 12 children and three women, and left more than 200 others injured.
Earlier on Tuesday, the armed wing of Palestine’s Hamas resistance movement staged a massive rocket launch against the occupied territories, firing dozens of rockets toward the cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon.
Tensions have escalated in Jerusalem al-Quds, the occupied West Bank and Gaza throughout the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, amid the planned forced expulsions of dozens of Palestinians from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, where illegal Israeli settlers are looking to take over the properties of Palestinian families.
The Palestinian Red Crescent announced on Tuesday that more than 700 people have been wounded in attacks by Israeli forces in East Jerusalem al-Quds and the West Bank.
The violent crackdown by Israeli forces against Palestinians in the city have already sparked global concern that the unrest could spread further.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip during the Six-Day War in 1967. It later had to withdraw from Gaza, but has been occupying the other territories ever since.