Israel launches airstrikes on Gaza

GAZA

Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes late on Aug. 21 on several locations in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Tensions increased in the region after hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated on the Gaza-Israel border.

A few hours after, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz announced that Israel would respond to the shooting of an Israeli soldier during demonstrations earlier on the border.

According to an Anadolu Agency correspondent, explosions occurred at several points in Gaza after the attack.

Palestinian media said the Nuseirat region in the central regions of Gaza and the Al-Shati Camp in the coastal region were among locations that were hit.

Israel said four targets belonging to the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, were hit by warplanes in response to the injury of an Israeli soldier during demonstrations on the border.

On Saturday, 41 Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were wounded in the demonstrations held on the border of the blockaded Gaza Strip on the 52nd anniversary of the burning of Masjid al-Aqsa by a fanatical Jew in 1969.

On Aug. 19, the Israeli army decided to increase forces on the Gaza border.

A radical pro-Israeli Australian national Dennis Michael Rohan attacked Al-Aqsa on Aug. 21, 1969, burning the mihrab and a 1,000-year-old pulpit.