Israeli Soldiers
Missiles launched from Lebanon are reported to have struck Israel in the northern part of a town called Metula. Israel is currently locked in conflict with the militant group Hamas in Gaza and the death toll is believed to have reached 100 this Friday.
CNN reported that the missiles themselves caused no major damage or loss of life. However, it is still unclear who exactly it was that launched the rockets in the first place. An Israeli Defense Forces insider expressed the opinion that the Lebanese government may be available for the strike.
Most rockets fired at Israel were intercepted by the Israeli Air Defense System. However, air strikes carried out by the Israeli military have led to almost 100 lives lost, including 40 women and children. Gaza residents are currently expressing deep concerns over a possible Israeli ground assault, after hearing that the Israeli Defense Forces have rallied over 30,000 reserved forces to their units.
Experts from Reuters noted that in the case that Israel does launch a ground assault on Gaza, it will be the first time since the three – week conflict between Israel and Palestine in the winter of 2008 and 2009 where over 1000 Palestinians were killed.
Hamas members declared that they will avenge the deaths of all the people who have been killed in the Israeli ground assaults. "The enemy will pay a tremendous price," the group said, after Israel noted that it has carried out airstrikes on "14 terror sites," including "concealed rocket launchers" in Gaza.
The Israel Defense Forces stated that their goal was to end the cross-border missile strikes, and military insiders expressed that so far their battle plan is all going according to plan. Both Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz, the commander of the military and Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel were set on ending the conflict by military retaliation.
However, there have been efforts to prevent the conflict from expanding any further. U.S. President Barack Obama talked to Netanyahu over the phone that the U.S. government is willing to help negotiate a ceasefire with Gaza, and that no one wants to see a full scale ground assault taking place. In addition, U.N. Secretary General Ki-Moon Ban is reaching out to local leaders to help prevent any further violence.
