Israel hits Hamas sites in Gaza over a rocket firing: Military

There were no reports of casualties in the attack, testing a fragile truce that ended fierce and deadly fighting in May.

The Israeli Iron Dome missile defence system (L) intercepts rockets (R) fired by the Hamas movement towards southern Israel from Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip as seen in the sky above the Gaza Strip overnight on May 14, 2021. - Israel bombarded Gaza with artillery and air strikes on Friday, May 14, in response to a new barrage of rocket fire from the Hamas-run enclave, but stopped short of a ground offensive in the conflict that has now claimed more than 100 Palestinian lives.
The recent rise in cross-border violence tests a fragile truce that ended fierce and deadly fighting in May [File: Anas Baba/AFP]

Israeli fighter jets have hit Hamas sites in Gaza in response to rocket firing towards Israel on Friday evening, an Israeli army spokesman said in a social media post.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in the attack.

Sirens warning of incoming rocket fire sounded near Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip late on Friday, the Israeli military said on Saturday.

The sirens were sounded just hours after police captured two individuals from Gaza’s Islamic Jihad group who had escaped from a maximum-security Israeli prison earlier this week.

Early on Saturday, The Jerusalem Post reported that two more escaped prisoners have been captured. They were identified as Zakaria Zubeidi and Mahmoud al-Arida.

The recent rise in cross-border violence tests a fragile truce that ended fierce fighting in May.

More than 260 Palestinians, many of them civilians and children, and 13 Israelis were killed in the May assault on Gaza, during which Israel carried out relentless air raids across the coastal enclave, prompting Gaza fighters to fire rockets towards Israeli cities.

Israel keeps Gaza under blockade, tightly restricting movement out of the territory that is home to two million Palestinians.

Egypt also maintains restrictions on the enclave. Both cite threats from Hamas for the restrictions.

The blockade restricts the movement of goods and people in and out of Gaza and has ravaged the territory’s economy and harming the population of two million.

Source: News Agencies