Israeli jets target Hamas sites in response to rocket fire

For the second time in less than 24 hours Israeli jets struck Hamas positions in the southern Gaza Strip following earlier rocket fire on Thursday evening. The military said that Israeli jets struck an “underground infrastructure and a naval target” belonging to Hamas in the southern Gaza Strip as well as “a terrorist military compound in the northern Gaza Strip.” According to Palestinian media in the coastal enclave the strikes were said to have targeted Hamas sites in Khan Yunis and Rafiah in the south as well as targets in Beit Lahia in the northern part of the Strip. The IDF said that a projectile was fired towards the kibbutz of Kfar Azza near the Gaza border earlier in the evening. A local regional government spokesperson said that there were no injuries or damage after the projectile struck an open field. The rocket fire on Thursday came hours after Israeli jets struck a Hamas weapons production facility in the coastal enclave following a rocket fired towards the college town of Sderot around 2.30AM. The rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome system. The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj.-Gen. Kamil Abu Rokon announced that in response to the rocket fire, the fishing zone would be reduced from 15 nautical miles to 10 nautical miles until further notice. The Israeli military holds Hamas, which has ruled over Gaza since 2007, responsible for all violence. The “terror group Hamas is responsible for what occurs in the Gaza Strip and what emanates from it, and that it will bear the consequences of actions against Israeli citizens,” the IDF said in a statement. Late in the afternoon on Thursday the IDF said it arrested three armed Palestinians who attempted to infiltrate into southern Israel from the northern Gaza Strip. The previous day an Israeli aircraft fired and struck an armed Palestinian carrying what seemed like an assault rifle. He was spotted by IDF reconnaissance and observation posts approaching the border fence. The rocket fire and infiltration attempts broke two weeks of relative quiet in southern Israel when IAF jets struck Hamas targets in response to three rockets fired from the Strip. All three were intercepted by the Iron Dome.
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