IDF strikes Gaza after rocket fire; 10-year-old said killed

Israeli jets struck the northern Gaza Strip early Saturday morning in response to rocket fire at the southern city of Sderot hours earlier. Officials in the Hamas-run enclave said a 10-year-old boy was killed.

The IDF confirmed that it struck four Hamas targets in northern Gaza, with Palestinian sources saying the bombings occurred near the town of Beit Lahiya.

“In response to the aggression, the Israel Air Force targeted four Hamas sites in the northern Gaza Strip,” a military statement said.

“There have been seven rockets fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the year.”

Hamas’s Health Ministry said 10-year-old Yassin Sleiman Abu Khusa was killed and his 6-year-old sister Yasmin and 13-year-old brother were injured in the airstrikes.

The IDF had no immediate comment about the reports of Palestinian casualties in the strikes.

At least four rockets launched from the Gaza Strip landed in an open field near the southern Israeli city of Sderot on Friday night.

No injuries or damage were reported in the attack. All four rockets fell in open areas.

Rocket sirens sounded in the Sha’ar Hanegev area and in Sderot ahead of the projectiles’ fall.

No organization claimed responsibility for the launch, which came at around the same time as a shooting attack in the West Bank that left two IDF soldiers lightly hurt.

Israel has said in the past that it holds the Gaza-based Hamas terrorist group, which rules the Strip, as responsible for any attacks initiated from within the Palestinian coastal enclave.

The strikes came hours after Islamic Jihad held a rally in Gaza, in a show of solidarity with a Palestinian TV and radio station whose West Bank offices were shuttered by Israel early Friday, but which continued to broadcast from the Strip.