By Mustafa Deveci
JERUSALEM (AA) – The Israeli army on Monday evening dispatched tanks to the Gaza Strip amid mounting tensions in the region.
According to Anadolu Agency correspondents in the area, the tanks were sent from various parts of Israel to Israeli troops located along the Gaza border.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army said it had targeted more than 70 positions inside Gaza affiliated with resistance movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad in response to the launching of scores of rockets from Gaza.
Additionally the Israeli military announced that it would send two more Iron Dome air defense systems to the region.
Israeli fighter jets on Monday evening struck positions across the blockaded Gaza Strip in response to rocket launches from Gaza into southern Israel.
Three Palestinians were martyred in the Israeli attacks, while nine were wounded, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.
Artillery units near the Gaza-Israel buffer zone have reportedly targeted concentrations of Palestinian activists in central Gaza, along with resistance positions in the town of Jabalia and the city of Deir al-Balah.
Israeli helicopter gunships, meanwhile, also reportedly targeted several positions in southern Gaza.
In a joint statement, Palestinian resistance factions announced that they had begun firing rockets into southern Israel in response to an Israeli military incursion into the southern Gaza Strip late last night.
On Monday evening, the army said it had recorded the launch of at least 200 rockets from Gaza, including 60 it claimed were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system while the others fell onto empty land.
At least 19 Israelis were wounded, with one — reportedly a soldier — in serious condition.
Late Sunday night, seven Palestinians were killed — including a senior Hamas commander — when an Israeli military force staged a ground incursion into the southern Gaza Strip.
One Israeli soldier was killed in the raid and another injured, according to the Israeli army.
