Israel launches strikes across Gaza after rocket hits house

Bloomberg

Israel carried out dozens of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, following a tense day that began with a rocket attack on a home in central Israel and a counterstrike that reduced the office of Hamas’s leader to ruins.
Amid the escalation, both sides made preparations for the possibility of a broader confrontation. Israel moved troops closer to its southern border and declared closed military zones near Gaza.
Reserves were called up, additional Iron Dome missile-defense batteries were deployed and bomb shelters were opened, including in Tel Aviv.
Television reports showed near-empty streets in southern Israeli communities.
In Gaza, hospitals across the territory were put on an emergency footing.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Washington for a speech and meetings with President Donald Trump, called the initial strike, which injured seven people in a village 60 miles north of Gaza, a “criminal attack on the state of Israel” and vowed to “respond forcefully.” Netanyahu initially was expected to cut his visit to Washington short, though it wasn’t clear later if he would follow through on that.

Election Risk
The conflict overshadowed Trump’s decision to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, reversing decades of US policy with a presidential proclamation. A major military escalation could prove risky for Netanyahu, who is facing a tough re-election battle on April 9 amid a corruption scandal.
“It highlights an area that he’s perceived as not having delivered the results,” said Israel Democracy Institute President Yohanan Plesner. “The political impact of this Gaza escalation is also that it draws the attention away from the Trump recognition of the Golan Heights that was supposed to be an important moment in his campaign.”
Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, reported that the two sides had reached a cease-fire agreement through Egyptian mediation, although airstrikes and rocket fire continued. Netanyahu’s office, the Foreign Ministry and the Israeli army all declined to comment on the cease-fire claim, as they do.
Attacks on Israel have escalated since Hamas suppressed recent protests against living conditions in the coastal enclave, which is groaning under Israeli and Egyptian blockades, sanctions imposed by the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, and Hamas taxes.
None of the militant groups in Gaza claimed responsibility for Monday morning’s rocket attack, saying it had been an accident — the same explanation given for a March 14 attack near Tel Aviv that caused no injuries.