Israel targeted Hamas positions in southern Gaza late Saturday night after rockets were fired from the Palestinian enclave, security sources and the army said.
The Israel Defense Forces said in a brief message to the press that they were “currently carrying out strikes” in Gaza, the Palestinian territory controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas.
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“Israeli warplanes are targeting a site of the al-Qassam Brigades, west of Khan Yunis” in southern Gaza, Palestinian sources told AFP, referencing the military wing of Hamas. The sources also reported artillery fire on a Hamas observation base in northern Gaza.
It comes after two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip on Saturday morning, falling into the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Tel Aviv. No sirens were sounded and Israel’s Iron Dome rocket interception system did not deploy, the army said in a statement.
Israel has maintained a blockade on the impoverished enclave since 2007, the year Hamas took power. Last year Hamas fired barrages of rockets towards Israel during an 11-day conflict sparked by tensions in Jerusalem.
A fragile ceasefire came into force in late May, and since then, only five rockets or mortar rounds were fired from Gaza towards Israeli territory, the military had said in an annual report released at the end of December, before the latest launches.