Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Wednesday that Israel will respond after an army officer was injured in an explosion in the Gaza Strip. Hamas movement denied responsibility for the incident, attributing it to an explosive device left over from the conflict.
In a speech at an air force pilots' graduation ceremony, Netanyahu referred to the attack that occurred in Rafah, saying that Hamas clarified it does not intend to lay down its arms as expected under the ceasefire agreement reached in October.
He added, "Israel will respond in kind".
Earlier, the Israeli Army had reported that an explosive device targeted a military vehicle in the Rafah area in the southern Gaza Strip, and that an officer sustained minor injuries in the incident.
Hamas stated in a statement on the messaging app Telegram: "The explosion that occurred in the Rafah area happened in a zone fully controlled by occupation forces, where no Palestinian works, and we had previously warned of the presence of war remnants in this and other areas. We are not responsible for them since the agreement's implementation, especially for those remnants that the occupation itself planted in the region".
Hamas spokesman Mahmoud Merdaoui had previously stated in a post on the X platform: "The movement informed the mediators of that."
