Israel strikes Gaza again over Palestinian fire

ISRAELI aircraft struck Hamas positions in Gaza early Thursday, the military said, after Palestinians in the enclave again launched projectiles and explosive balloons at the Jewish state.

“Fighter jets and (other) aircraft targeted Hamas terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip,” it said in an English language statement.

Palestinian security sources and eyewitnesses in Gaza reported hits on unspecified targets north of Al Shati refugee camp near

Gaza City and a Hamas facility in the southern Gaza Strip. They said nobody was injured.

On Wednesday night the army reported “two mortar shells were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory” at open areas.

There were no reported casualties.

Since US President Donald Trump’s announcement last week of his plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, rockets, mortar shells and explosive balloons have been launched almost daily from Gaza into southern Israel, provoking Israeli retaliation.

Palestinians strongly reject the US plan, seen as heavily favouring Israel.

Hamas and Israel have fought three wars since 2008 but over the past year the Islamists have gradually shaped an informal truce with Israel, under which the Jewish state has eased its crippling blockade of Gaza.Agence France-Presse