IDF aircraft fired missiles at numerous targets in the Gaza Strip early Friday. The attacks targeted several facilities which had been used to plan terror operations. According to the IDF, 16 air strikes targeted access routes and open areas in southern Gaza. Seven additional strikes hit a weapons storage facility, an Aksa Martyrs Brigades office, a Ministry of the Interior building in Gaza City, a Hamas office and three training camps belonging to the Aksa Brigades and Hamas. The IDF said the Interior Ministry office, controlled by Hamas, was "a meeting place to plan and direct terror activity." There were no reports of casualties in any of the late-night attacks. Capt. Jacob Dallal of the IDF Spokesperson's Unit told The Jerusalem Post that the operation's purpose was simple: "To gain the release of Cpl. Gilad Shalit." According to Dallal, the strikes would be "ongoing." Though the operation was being done "in a calibrated, studied fashion," the IDF "has many means at our disposal" for escalating the attacks. "We hope that this will work and that he will be freed as soon as possible," Dallal concluded.
Also early Friday, IDF troops in southern Gaza noticed several Palestinians approaching an IDF position with an anti-tank rocket launcher. Troops fired at the cell, causing it to flee. According to the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, two of the attackers were believed to be wounded, but all managed to escape.