Al-Qassam Brigades the armed wing of Hamas said Tuesday it had launched a salvo of rockets towards the occupied city of Ashkelon in response to the dawn aerial attack on apartments in the west of Gaza City.
“If the enemy persists in attacking civilian homes we will turn Ashkelon into an inferno” al-Qassam Brigades said in a communiqué.
According to a statement released by Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon 26 Israelis were injured some seriously after Palestinian rockets struck three buildings in the heart of Ashkelon.
Israel’s Channel 13 said that Ashkelon city saw 10 minutes of unprecedented rocket fire.
Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper claimed that at least 50 rockets from Gaza landed in Ashkelon within few minutes and injured a number of Israeli residents.
Earlier Tuesday morning an Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in Gaza claimed the lives of an elderly woman and two other civilians including her special needs son.