Israel attacks Gaza targets following drone raid

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army targeted Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip overnight in response to a drone attack from the Palestinian enclave, the military said.

The Israeli strikes late Saturday came after two days of cross-border exchanges of fire in which two Palestinian teenagers were killed. An Egyptian delegation meanwhile arrived in the Gaza Strip on Sunday as part of efforts to keep alive a fragile truce between Hamas and Israel, a Hamas source said.

The truce was negotiated by Egyptian and UN officials with aid from Qatar to end several severe flare-ups of violence in recent months. Following a Saturday drone attack, Israeli fighter jets and a drone "struck a number of Hamas military targets, including offensive naval equipment and two military compounds," the army said.

It said it "holds Hamas responsible for all that transpires in the Gaza Strip and emanates from it." A security source in Gaza said Israeli "warplanes raided four positions" of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas military wing, in central and northern Gaza, causing damage but "no injuries."

According to the army, a drone launched from southern Gaza had crossed into Israeli airspace, dropped "what seems to be an explosive device" near the security fence and damaged a military vehicle before returning to Gaza.