DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Hamas fired a barrage of rockets from Gaza on Sunday that sounded air raid sirens as far as Tel Aviv for the first time in months, in a show of resistance to more than seven months of Israel’s massive air, sea and land offensive.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage in what appeared to be the first long-range rocket attack from Gaza since January. Hamas’s military wing claimed responsibility for the attack. Palestinian militants have sporadically fired rockets and mortar shells at communities along the Gaza border, and the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group said later on Sunday that it fired rockets at nearby communities.
The Israeli military said eight projectiles crossed into Israel after being fired from the Rafah city area of southern Gaza, where Israeli forces recently launched a raid. He said “several” of the projectiles were intercepted.
Earlier on Sunday, aid trucks entered Gaza from southern Israel under a new agreement to avoid the Rafah crossing with Egypt after Israeli forces seized the Palestinian side earlier this month. But it was not immediately clear whether humanitarian groups would be able to access aid because of the fighting.
Egypt refuses to reopen its side of the Rafah crossing until control of the Gaza side is returned to the Palestinians. It agreed to temporarily divert traffic through the Israeli Kerem Shalom crossing, Gaza’s main cargo terminal, following a call between US President Joe Biden and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
But the Kerem Shalom crossing has been largely inaccessible due to the Israeli offensive on Rafah. Israel says it has allowed hundreds of trucks in, but United Nations agencies say it is normally too dangerous to retrieve aid.
The war between Israel and Hamas has killed nearly 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. The Health Ministry said the bodies of 81 people killed by Israeli strikes had been taken to hospitals in the past 24 hours.
About 80% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes, severe hunger is widespread and UN officials say parts of the territory are experiencing famine.
Hamas sparked the war with its Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostages. Hamas is still holding about 100 hostages and the remains of about 30 more after most of the rest were freed during a ceasefire last year.
Egyptian state television Al-Qahera broadcast images of what it said were trucks entering Gaza through Kerem Shalom. Khaled Zayed, head of the Egyptian Red Crescent in the Sinai Peninsula, which is responsible for delivering aid from the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, said 200 aid trucks and four fuel trucks were planned to be sent to Kerem Shalom. on Sunday.
Southern Gaza has been largely cut off from aid since Israel launched what it called a limited raid on Rafah on May 6. Since then, more than 1 million Palestinians have fled the city. Most had been displaced from other parts of besieged Gaza.
Northern Gaza is still receiving aid through two land routes that Israel opened during global outrage after Israeli strikes killed seven aid workers in April.
A few dozen trucks enter Gaza daily via a U.S.-built floating dock, but its capacity remains far short of the 150 trucks per day officials had hoped for. Aid groups say 600 trucks a day are needed.
Netanyahu has said Israel must take Rafah to eliminate the remaining Hamas battalions and achieve a “total victory” over the militants, who recently regrouped in other parts of Gaza where the army has operated.
Netanyahu faces increasing pressure to reach a deal with Hamas to release the remaining hostages, something Hamas has refused without guarantees to end the war and completely withdraw Israeli troops. Netanyahu has ruled it out.
Clashes broke out between police and protesters in Tel Aviv on Saturday after thousands of people gathered again to demand the return of the hostages. They called for Netanyahu’s resignation and demanded new elections.
The war also leaves Israel increasingly isolated on the world stage.
Last week, three European countries announced they would recognize a Palestinian state, and the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court sought arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, along with three Hamas leaders.
On Friday, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to end its military offensive in Rafah. The U.N. top court also said Israel must give war crimes investigators access to Gaza.
Israel is unlikely to comply and has condemned the ICC’s decision to issue arrest warrants. Israel says it makes every effort to avoid harming civilians and blames Hamas for their deaths because the militants operate in dense residential areas.
Hamas claimed to have captured an Israeli soldier during fighting in northern Gaza and released a video Saturday night showing an injured man being dragged through a tunnel. The Israeli military denied that any soldiers had been captured, and Hamas provided no other evidence to support its claim.
In another development, Israel’s military said it had detained a suspect over a widely circulated video in which a man dressed as a soldier threatens to mutiny. In the video, the man says that tens of thousands of soldiers were willing to disobey the defense minister over his suggestion that Palestinians rule Gaza after the war and pledged loyalty only to Netanyahu.
It was unclear if the man was on active duty, or when or where the video was recorded. Yair Netanyahu, the prime minister’s son, shared the video on social media, prompting criticism from his political opponents. The prime minister’s office issued a brief statement condemning all forms of military subordination.
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Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel and Magdy from Cairo.
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