BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The Israeli military released footage Thursday showing what it said was its air force targeting Hamas Fajr missile infrastructure in the Gaza Strip in an airstrike.

A day earlier Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told reporters that most of Hamas' Fajr missiles were destroyed in the first hour of the Israeli army's brutal assault on the Gaza Strip.

"Israel does not want war, but Hamas' provocations -- the firing on the south, the explosives tunnel and the anti-tank missile fire on a jeep -- all these obligated us to act with intensity," he was quoted as saying.