GAZA CITY
Palestinian resistance group Hamas has sent SMS text messages to nearly half a million Israelis, warning them of continued rocket fire from Gaza in retaliation for Israel's unrelenting air offensive against the the Gaza Strip.
"We have warned the Israelis that the rocket fire would continue," the Ezzeddin al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' armed wing, said in a Monday statement.
One week ago, Israel launched a military operation in the Gaza Strip – dubbed "Operation Protective Edge" – with the stated aim of ending rocket fire from the embattled Palestinian enclave.
Since last Monday, Israel has pounded the strip – home to some 1.8 million Palestinians – with hundreds of devastating airstrikes.
Israeli ground troops, meanwhile, remain amassed on the strip's borders in advance of a possible ground assault.
At least 179 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed – and more than a thousand injured – since Israel's air campaign began one week ago.
Gaza-based resistance factions, for their part, have continued to fire rockets into Israel, some of which have reached Tel Aviv, in response to the ongoing offensive.
By Mustafa Haboosh
www.aa.com.tr/en
