Israeli strikes hit militant targets in Gaza after rocket fire
02 January, 2022
Israel has launched strikes against militant targets in the Gaza Strip a day after rockets were fired from territory ruled by the Palestinian Hamas group.
Video filmed in Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip shows three huge explosions as the sound of fighter jets flying overhead is heard.
The Israeli military early on Sunday said the attacks were aimed at a rocket manufacturing plant and a military post for Hamas. It also blamed the militant group for any violence emanating from the territory it controls.
The air strikes came as retaliation for two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip on Saturday morning, which fell into the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Tel Aviv.
It was not clear whether the rockets were meant to hit Israel, but Gaza-based militant groups often test-fire missiles towards the sea. There were no reports of casualties from Saturday’s rocket launches.
A fragile ceasefire came into force in late May and since then only five rockets or mortar rounds were fired from Gaza towards Israeli territory, the military had said in an annual report released at the end of December, before the latest launches.
The ceasefire, brokered by Egypt and other mediators, has been fragile. Hamas says Israel has not taken serious steps to ease the blockade it imposed on Gaza with Egypt’s help when the militant movement seized control of the coastal enclave in 2007.
On Wednesday, Palestinian militants in Gaza shot and lightly wounded an Israeli civilian near the security fence and Israel responded with tank fire aimed at Hamas sites in the first such exchange in months.
Tensions are also high as other groups like the smaller but more hardline Islamic Jihad threaten military escalation if Israel doesn’t end the administrative detention of a Palestinian prisoner who has been on a hunger strike for over 130 days.
Source: www.thenationalnews.com