JERUSALEM – The Israeli military said early Sunday morning it had carried out air strikes against militia targets in the Gaza Strip, a day after rockets were fired from territory ruled by Hamas.
Video shot in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, shows three large explosions and the sound of warplanes flying overhead can be heard. There was no immediate confirmation of possible casualties.
The Israeli military said the attacks targeted a rocket production facility and a Hamas military post. It also blames the militant Islamist group for any violence emanating from the territory it controls.
The airstrikes came as a retaliation for two rockets fired from Gaza on Saturday that landed in the Mediterranean Sea off central Israel.
It is not clear if the missile was aimed at Israel, but militant groups in Gaza often test-fire missiles towards the sea. There were no reports of casualties from Saturday’s rocket launches.
Apart from a single incident in September, there have been no cross-border rocket firings since a ceasefire ended the 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in May.
A ceasefire, brokered by Egypt and other intermediaries, is fragile. The militant group Hamas says Israel has not taken serious steps to ease the blockade it imposed on Gaza with the help of Egypt when the Islamist movement took control of the coastal region in 2007. .
Tensions are also running high as other groups such as the smaller but tougher Islamic Jihad threaten military escalation if Israel does not end the administrative detention of a Palestinian prisoner who has been on hunger strike for more than 130 days.
On Wednesday, Palestinian militants in Gaza shot and lightly wounded an Israeli civilian near the security fence, and Israel responded with tank fire targeting multiple Hamas sites in the first exchange in a row. many months.
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