Shortly after US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s visit to the Middle East, the Israeli air force attacked targets in the Palestinian Gaza Strip on Thursday night. According to the Israeli military, the airstrikes were aimed at rocket and weapons production sites of the radical Islamist group Hamas in response to a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
There were no immediate reports of dead or injured. Neither Hamas nor the smaller Iran-backed Islamic Jihad movement, which fired rockets at Israel last week, claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s rocket.
Blinken called for moderation at the end of a visit to the region on Tuesday given the recent escalation in violence in the Middle East conflict. He reiterated the US position that a two-state solution is the only way to a lasting solution to the conflict. The United States is considered Israel’s most important partner and a major supplier of military goods.