Israeli planes hit Gaza after rocket fired at south
No injuries reported in strikes on Hamas targets after missile launched from Palestinian territory explodes in Eshkol region
Israeli jets bombed a target in the Gaza Strip early Monday morning after a Palestinian terror group launched a rocket into southern Israel.
Palestinian media in Gaza reported Israeli strikes shortly after 2:30 a.m., a matter of hours after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip Sunday night landed in open territory in the Eshkol Regional Council in southern Israel, causing neither injury or damage.
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
The IDF said in a statement that Israeli aircraft struck “a Hamas terror site in the northern Gaza Strip.”
Hamas’s Al Aqsa news said Israeli airstrikes targeted Qassam Brigades sites across the Palestinian enclave.
Earlier on, air raid sirens warning of incoming rocket fire were heard in Nahal Oz and Alumim.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. There were no immediate claims of responsibility by Palestinian groups.
Security forces were searching the area for a possible site of impact.
A second rocket launch reportedly failed and did not trigger alarms.
Last week, the Israeli Air Force carried out a series of air strikes in the Gaza Strip in response to a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave which was shot down by the Iron Dome anti-missile system over the southern city of Ashdod.
The military said the IAF struck 4 “terror targets” inside Gaza, at least two of which belonged to Hamas. IDF sources said they believed the fire was part of an internal power struggle between the Hamas terror group and smaller Salafist groups.
The incident comes amid sky-high tensions in Jerusalem and the West Bank after a spate of deadly terror attacks, the latest of which occurred Saturday night in the Old City, in which a Palestinian stabbed to death two Israeli men, and badly injured the wife of one of the victims.
Israel has faced sporadic rocket fire out of the Strip since reaching a ceasefire with Hamas-led fighters from the Palestinian enclave in August 2014, ending a 50-day war.
