Jerusalem | The Israeli air force struck Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip overnight from Thursday to Friday in retaliation for rocket fire into Israel from the Palestinian enclave, according to an Israeli army statement.
Thursday evening, two rockets were fired from Gaza towards Israel, without however injuring. The security services specified that the sirens had sounded in the area of ​​Ashkelon, an Israeli locality near the Palestinian enclave.
In the process, Israeli warplanes hit a Hamas “weapons factory” and “underground infrastructure”, the army said.
Hamas, an Islamist group that controls the impoverished Palestinian territory of two million inhabitants, confirmed in a statement strikes in Khan Younès (south) and in the Nuseirat refugee camp (center), without reporting any injuries.
According to the IDF, one of the rockets fired Thursday from Gaza into Israel was intercepted by the Israeli missile shield, and the second rocket landed in a vacant lot.
The last rocket fire against Israeli territory from the Palestinian enclave dates back to Tuesday after the Israeli army announced that it had discovered a tunnel dug from the Palestinian enclave and leading into Israeli territory.
In power in Gaza since 2007, Hamas stepped up in August the launching of incendiary balloons and rocket attacks towards Israel, which responded with air strikes on the group’s positions.
But the two camps reached an agreement at the beginning of September, thanks to mediation by Qatar, in order to cease hostilities and put back on track a fragile truce in force for about a year and a half and favored by the mediation also of the UN and Egypt.