Palestinians in Gaza fire rocket at Israel

A rocket was fired towards Israel from the Gaza Strip Saturday night, the latest attack by Palestinian terrorists in the coastal territory.

The projectile exploded inside Palestinian territory, and there were no reports of casualties or damage.

Israel regularly responds to rocket attacks with air strikes on terror targets in Gaza. There was no immediate word of such a strike.

In early January, Israel Air Force fighter jets conducted several air raids on Hamas targets in the northern Gaza Strip after at least two rockets fired from the Palestinian enclave landed in open areas near the southern city of Sderot

Recently the Israeli Army has been deploying artillery batteries along the border with Gaza amid fears of an increase in violence on the frontier. The move follows the bombing by Israeli aircraft of Palestinian terrorists placing explosive devices along the Strip’s northern border.

One man was killed in the strike and three more were injured, according to Hamas, which claimed the attack came not from an aircraft but from an Israel Navy ship.

A senior defense force said Friday that Hamas has rehabilitated itself in the wake of 2014’s Gaza war and is ready for a fresh round of hostilities with Israel.

“Hamas in Gaza has recovered, and (its military wing) is ready to confront Israel again if it is asked to do so,” the Israeli official told leaders of local authorities of the Gaza border communities, according to a report on the Ynet news website.

“They have restored their tunnels, rocket firing systems, intelligence gathering operations and observation posts,” he added.

Israeli security officials do not believe that Hamas is currently seeking another major round of conflict with Israel in and around Gaza. Rather, the official said, the terror group is currently seeking to gain control of rival Salafist groups that have launched a number of attacks on Israel from the Palestinian territory in recent months.