After rockets, airstrikes, Hamas blasts Israel for defying truce

A day after Israeli planes bombed targets in the Gaza Strip following rocket fire at southern Israel, Hamas blamed Israel for the latest escalation, demanding it be forced to meet ceasefire agreements.

“The Israeli escalation is in breach of the ceasefire terms, and the occupation is responsible,” Hamas official Ismail Radwan was quoted as saying Thursday by Israeli news site Ynet.

The airstrikes came a few hours after rockets were shot at southern Israel from the Gaza Strip Wednesday night, sending residents hurrying to bomb shelters for the second time in a little over a week.

A Salafist group in the Gaza Strip named the Omar Brigades, which is sympathetic to the Islamic State, claimed responsibility for the rocket fire, Ynet reported.

Radwan called on Egypt and the international community to force Israel to meet the ceasefire terms drafted at the end of a 50-day war in between Israel and Hamas-led fighters in and around Gaza last year.

But he ruled out the possibility that Israel would start another military operation in the Strip.

His comments were the only official Hamas reaction so far to the latest round of fire.

The Israel Defense Forces said on Wednsday that two rockets were fired from the Palestinian enclave and sirens were heard in Netivot and Ashkelon. Police later said three projectiles struck Israel.

The rockets landed in open areas in the Sdot Negev and Hof Ashkelon regions.

Though the sporadic attacks since an August ceasefire have been attributed to smaller groups which oppose Hamas rule, Israel holds the strip’s Islamic extremist rulers responsible for any rocket fire, and regularly targets them with airstrikes in response to rocket fire.

On May 26, Palestinians shot a Grad rocket into Israel, striking an area outside the town of Gan Yavneh, in an attack that broke several weeks of calm.

Palestinian and Israeli officials said the rocket attack, which caused no injuries or damage, was the result of internal fighting within the Islamic Jihad terror group.

Israeli planes struck Gaza soon after and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon warned Hamas to rein in any attempts by Gaza terror groups to attack Israel, or “pay a heavy price.”

Wednesday night’s attack came a day after rocket sirens sounded across the rest of the country as part of a major civil defense drill. Areas near Gaza, which absorbed thousands of rockets during last summer’s conflict with the Strip, were excluded from the drill.

Escalating rocket fire from Gaza at Israel’s southern communities in 2014 was among the triggers of a bloody, two-month war between Israel and the armed factions in the Strip. During the conflict, Palestinians fired over 4,000 rockets at Israeli towns and cities, some of which reached Tel Aviv and as far north as Haifa’s suburbs.

Last week’s attack marked the first time a Grad rocket, which can go farther than the smaller Kassams more commonly shot out of Gaza, had been fired at Israel since the war.

Israel is wary of Gaza terrorist groups rearming after war. The IDF says Hamas has been conducting test launches in recent months in order to increase its capabilities.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.