GAZA CITY: Israel launched air strikes on Gaza targets in return for rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave on Thursday, a day after the deadliest Israeli army raid in the occupied West Bank in nearly 20 years.

Eleven Palestinians, including a 16-year-old, were killed and more than 80 wounded in a gun battle on Wednesday after Israeli troops raided the flashpoint West Bank city of Nablus. The death toll was the highest since the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, ended in 2005.

Before dawn on Thursday, Palestinian fighters fired rockets from Gaza at Israel, prompting air strikes by the army on multiple sites in the coastal enclave.

Palestinian group Islamic Jihad claimed res­pons­ibility for the rockets, after saying one of its commanders was killed in the Nablus raid.

The Israeli army said it intercepted five rockets, while a sixth struck an uninhabited area.

Two hours later Israeli air strikes targeted a “weapons factory” and a “military camp” run by Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas, the army said, sending plumes of black smoke into the sky.

Tensions were still high in the evening. By the border fence in northern Gaza, dozens of men protested, waving Palestinian flags and burning tyres in support of the people of Nablus.

The Palestinian health ministry said those killed in Nablus were aged between 16 and 72. Hours after the raid, the ministry announced the death of Anan Ennab, 66, from tear gas inhalation. He had been in the market when the Israeli incursion began, his brother Allam Ennab said on Thursday.

Palestinian health officials said 82 people were hospitalised for gunshot wounds.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2023