Israeli warplanes hit Gaza after new rocket attack

GAZA CITY: Israeli warplanes carried out a fresh round of strikes in the Gaza Strip on Monday after a rocket fired by Palestinians slammed into southern Israel, the army said.

The cross-border exchange followed a weekend escalation in violence seen as among the most serious since Israel and the coastal enclave’s Hamas rulers fought a war in 2014.

But the militant group was quick to say that it did not seek further confrontation.

Israeli fighter jets “targeted underground infrastructure in the southern Gaza Strip, in response to the projectile that was launched at Israel earlier,” an army statement said.

It did not give further details, but Palestinian security sources said several missiles were fired at farmland east of Rafah in the south of the coastal enclave. No casualties were reported on either side.

Monday’s strikes followed fierce exchanges over the weekend after an apparent Palestinian booby trap exploded Saturday, injuring four Israeli soldiers inspecting the border fence. Israel responded by pounding 18 Hamas facilities in two waves of airstrikes on Saturday and Sunday, according to the Israeli military.

Israeli ground forces also killed two Palestinian teenagers in the enclave in crossborder fire.

But senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar said on Monday that his organization had no wish to see fighting with Israel intensify.