The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), began the new year, and in its first minutes, announced the bombardment of Tel Aviv and its environs and the enveloping Gaza Strip with a barrage of missiles.
The Al-Qassam Brigades said that it bombed Tel Aviv and its suburbs with a barrage of M-90 rockets in response to “Zionist massacres against Palestinian civilians,” and published a video clip of the rocket launch.
For its part, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said that Israel welcomed the New Year with a barrage of missiles from the Gaza Strip. Israeli media also reported that about 20 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards central Israel.
Al-Qassam publishes scenes of launching rocket salvoes towards Tel Aviv in the first minute of the new year#Gaza_War #News pic.twitter.com/H0cQcnxnBv
– Tel Aviv Tribune Channel (@AJArabic) December 31, 2023
According to Israeli Army Radio, sirens sounded in the city of Tel Aviv, Rishon Lezion, Lod, Ramla, Bnei Brak, and the Modiin settlement in the central West Bank. Warning sirens also sounded in the city of Sderot and other areas around the Gaza Strip.
Commenting on the Qassam rocket attack, the expert in military affairs, Major General Wassef Erekat, told Tel Aviv Tribune that the bombing of Tel Aviv at this time is a message from the Qassam Brigades to the occupation.
He added that the resistance “just as it excelled in choosing the timing of the Al-Aqsa flood battle on October 7, 2023, it renewed the defeat of the occupation from 2023 to 2024, that is, it transferred the defeat to a qualitative shift and said to the Israeli leadership: Just as we defeated you in 2023, here we are opening the year with another defeat.”