Palestine hits back at Israel

– Palestinian militants yesterday launched their heaviest mortar bomb barrage against Israel since a 2014 Gaza war and Israeli aircraft struck Islamic Jihad camps in the enclave in response.

There were no immediate reports of casualties from either side after more than 25 projectiles were launched from the Gaza Strip and the planes attacked three of the Iranian-backed armed group’s facilities.

The Israeli military said most of the projectiles fired from Gaza were shot down by its Iron Dome rocket interceptor but one exploded in the yard of a kindergarten, damaging its walls, about an hour before it was scheduled to open for the day.

There was no claim of responsibility from any of the armed groups in Gaza, which is controlled by the Islamist militant Hamas movement, but the attack comes after Islamic Jihad vowed to take revenge after three of its members were killed by Israeli tank shelling.

Violence has soared along the Gaza frontier in recent weeks during which 116 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire at mass demonstrations for a right of return to ancestral lands in Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military would launch a forceful retaliation for the mortar attack, pointing the finger at Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Gaza residents identified the targets as Islamic Jihad training camps. The Israeli army said it was “carrying out activities in the Gaza Strip”, without elaborating. –