Hamas on Wednesday threatened to widen its bombing campaign and target homes and high-rises in Israel, in retaliation for an air strike that flattened the house of a Hamas leader and killed his eldest son and a bodyguard.
The Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, escaped with minor injuries.
The bomb, dropped from an F-16 warplane, destroyed his two-story home, killed his son Khaled (29) and wounded his wife and a daughter.
Wednesday’s strike marked the first time the home of a senior Hamas leader was targeted.
”Targeting homes is violating all red lines,” the Hamas military wing, Izzedine al Qassam, said in a leaflet distributed in Gaza City.
”So the Zionist enemy from today shoulders the responsibility for the targeting of houses and Zionist towers everywhere in occupied Palestine.”
”In the past, we avoided targeting housing projects and buildings, but the enemy has started this game, and they are going to face the consequences of that,” the leaflet said.
Israeli security officials have said that they foiled at least two attempts by Hamas to bomb the twin Azrieli Towers in Tel Aviv. — Sapa-AP