Israel strikes Hamas after rocket fired from Gaza

JERUSALEM: Israel struck Hamas sites in the Gaza Strip late Friday in response to a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave, Israel´s military said.

The army said the rocket was fired on Friday evening without giving further details. Local media reported that the rocket landed in open ground without injuring anyone, though thousands of residents of southern Israel rushed to bomb shelters. “In response... aircraft and a tank targeted infrastructure used for underground activity as well as military posts belonging to the Hamas terror organisation,” Israel´s army said.

A security source in Gaza confirmed a number of Israeli strikes on a Hamas base near Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, with no reports of injuries. The flareup came as Israelis throughout the country were largely confined to their homes due to the coronavirus emergency.

The rocket fire was the first such attack since a two-day cross border flareup between Israel and Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad in late February. During that incident Islamic Jihad, the second largest militant group in Gaza after the strip´s Islamist rulers Hamas, fired more than 80 rockets and mortar rounds towards Israel after the army killed a militant who was allegedly planting a bomb on the border on February 23.