TEL AVIV/GAZA, August 20 (RIA Novosti) – Palestinian rebels have fired two rockets on Tel Aviv and attacked largest cities in the south of Israel following the collapse of a Gaza truce, representatives on the both sides said.
No injuries have so far been reported. Two rockets launched from Gaza landed in vicinity of Tel Aviv, the country’s second largest city. Rocket alert sirens went off in the city of Beit Shemesh, which borders the nation’s capital Jerusalem. Reports on the landing or interception of rockets were coming from the southern cities of Ashkelon, Beersheba, Ashdod and Sderot.
Hamas rebels claimed responsibility for the attacks. The militants also said to have launched a rocket at the country's main international airport, Ben Gurion Airport, though there were no reported strikes in the region.
Late on Tuesday, local emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told RIA Novosti about the first victims of an Israeli attack. An airstrike on a house in Sheikh Radwan district, in the northwest of Gaza City, killed a 40-year-old woman and a two-year-old girl. 16 others were wounded.
Israel blamed Palestinian rebels for violating the truce after at least ten rockets landed in the Jewish state. Two of them were intercepted in the air; another one damaged a café in the city of Ashkelon. No injuries were initially reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday ordered the army to retaliate with airstrikes on Gaza and instructed the Israeli delegation in Cairo to return to Israel as the negotiations with the Palestinians over the Gaza truce had collapsed.
