CAIRO/JERUSALEM: Hamas armed wing al-Qassam Brigades said it launched a “big missile” attack on Tel Aviv on Sunday as the Israeli military sounded sirens in the central city warning of possible incoming rockets.
In a statement on its Telegram channel on Sunday, al-Qassam Brigades said the rockets were launched in response to what it called “Zionist massacres against civilians”.
Hamas Al-Aqsa TV said the rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip.
Rocket sirens had not been heard in Tel Aviv for the past four months. The reason for the sirens was not immediately stated by the Israeli military.
Israeli emergency medical services said they had received no reports of casualties.
The attack signaled the resistance group was still able to fire long-range rockets despite more than seven months of devastating Israeli military offensive from the air and the ground.
The armed wing of Hamas said it had taken “prisoner” at least one Israeli soldier in an ambush on Saturday in the Gaza Strip, a claim Israel denied.
The Palestinian fighter group targeted Israeli forces in a tunnel in the Jabalia camp and “all their members were killed, wounded or taken prisoner,” said Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.
Hamas also broadcast images of a soldier being dragged along the ground, presenting the soldier as a captured Israeli. The images could not be immediately authenticated by AFP.