Netanyahu orders "aggressive" response to rocket fire from Wing of Zion

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he instructed Defense Minister Israel Katz to launch an "aggressive" response to the rocket fire earlier tonight (Sunday) against the area of Ashdod and Ashkelon.

The Prime Minister said that he was "updated" about the rocket fire from Gaza while on the Wing of Zion plane en route to meet with President Donald Trump tomorrow, and that he instructed Katz to continue the "intensive" attacks against Hamas.

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Israel Katz released a statement saying that he instructed the IDF to deal a "very powerful blow in Gaza in response to the rocket fire and that "Hamas murderers will pay a very heavy price for every shrapnel fragment that hits a resident of Ashkelon."

Katz ended his statement by saying that "we will not make peace with rocket fire towards Israel."

The IDF has been building up the pressure on Hamas for the past few weeks, including adding a new corridor, dubbed the Morag corridor, cutting Rafah off from the rest of the Gaza Strip.

However, the IDF has consistently avoided operating in the Deir el-Balah area in the central Gaza Strip, where the rockets were fired, since the beginning of the war - due to the suspected presence of hostages there, according to foreign sources.

Netanyahu is set to discuss the matter of the hostages along with the matter of tariffs and Iran.