Rockets, air attacks in Gaza follow deadly Israeli raid in Jenin

A deadly Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank has provoked grief and anger in Gaza. Rockets have been fired into Israel, and hundreds of Palestinians have taken part in vigils and rallies to condemn what they describe as a “massacre”.

After nine Palestinians were killed in Israel’s raid on Thursday in Jenin, armed groups in Gaza declared a state of high alert, calling the incursion “a new Israeli crime” against the Palestinian people.

Following the announcement, two rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel, an attack claimed by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. They were shot down early on Friday by Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system, and Israel carried out air attacks on locations in Gaza that it said are used by armed groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Khader Habib, an Islamic Jihad spokesperson, said in statement that the Palestinian people had been “subjected to unprecedented killings and attacks by the new Israeli government in all parts of the West Bank amid the complete absence of international intervention”.

“As long as the Palestinian people are alone in confrontation, we have no options but to resist with all that we have as the only way to defend ourselves,” Habib said.

Israel had not carried out a raid on the scale of its operation in Jenin in years, but it is part of intensified military incursions by the Israeli army into the occupied West Bank, which have killed at least 200 Palestinians in the past year.

Hisham al-Hato, who took part in a protest march in Gaza, said he was sending his “support and solidarity” to Jenin.

“We are very sad and angry,” al-Hato told Al Jazeera. “The Israeli crimes against our people in the West Bank must stop. Gaza and the West Bank are one heart.”

Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem told Al Jazeera that what had happened in Jenin was “a war crime”.

“The occupation’s crimes will not go unpunished nor will it succeed in breaking the will of our Palestinian people,” Qassem said as concern about an escalation in the conflict grew.