Islamic Jihad launches rocket barrage against southern Israel

The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian resistance group, Islamic Jihad, said Thursday it launched rockets against cities and settlements adjacent to the Gaza Strip for "crimes committed by the Zionist enemy against our Palestinian people."

"We have targeted the cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon, along with the settlements of Mefalsim, Nir Am, and Sderot, with concentrated rocket barrages," the group said in a statement.

There has been no comment from Tel Aviv. The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, however, reported in a breaking news update that a rocket attack from Gaza targeted several areas in southern Israel, including Ashkelon.

Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

More than 37,200 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 84,900 injured, according to local health authorities.

Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its military operation in Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.